


Heaven always demands a little Hell

by tommy-or-billy-who-am-I (dreamsofaweirdo)



Category: All New X-Men (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Bi Kate and Tommy, F/F, F/M, Genderfluid Loki, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, M/M, Self-Harm, Tommy is a dick at first
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-15
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-26 10:59:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5002126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamsofaweirdo/pseuds/tommy-or-billy-who-am-I
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Billy was always a good kid, always did his homeworks, always did his chores until the guys in school started bullying him. As the bullying got worse and turned from words to violence Billy got worse and worse in school and hardly left his room. </p><p>When Billy came home covered in bruises his parents decided it was time to send him to the Bishop Institute, where his twin brother, Tommy, had been going for a few months. At first Billy thinks this is the worst idea ever until he meets his roommate...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The arrival and lunchtime (sorry I'm crap at Chapter Titles)

A car drives down the long driveway of the Bishop Institute, a large all male boarding school in the middle of nowhere. The building is surrounded by what feels like miles of grass, which are surrounded by thousands of trees before there is finally civilisation. There is a large pond each side of the driveway with swans and ducks in them. 

“Do you really want me to go here mum?” Billy asks as he looks at the huge building in front of them. 

“Yes, your father and I agree that this institute will be a great opportunity for character development and a good place to get away from the bullies at your old school,” Rebecca answers while she gets out of the car and walks around to the boot. 

“I said I was fine at my old school and that Tommy has been doing better since he got here does not mean that the same applies to me,” Billy says while he takes his bags out of the boot and the back of the car. Billy has two large bags filled with clothes and a few smaller ones with other stuff like his comic books, his laptop, school stuff, and such. 

“Honey, your bruises indicated something different and if this institute can make Thomas a good student then it can make you a perfect one, besides I bet you will enjoy it here,” Rebecca replies and takes the last bag out of the boot before shutting it. Billy and Rebecca pick the bags up and start walking towards the large entrance of the building. 

“Ugh, I had a reasonable explanation for those bruises,” Billy answers while they walk towards the secretariat to get Billy’s room key and timetable. 

“It obviously wasn’t reasonable enough otherwise your father and I would have believed you or not? Now stop trying to talk your way out of this, you are going to this school and that is that,” Rebecca says with a stern look on her face. Billy signs, knowing that that look means he should stop arguing or having to stay at this place is going to be the smallest of his worries. Billy and his mother enter the secretariat and greet the woman behind one of the desks.

“I am Rebecca Kaplan, we talked over the phone yesterday,” Mrs. Kaplan says and smiles. Billy stands next to his mother in silence as the woman behind the desks types something into the computer before looking up at the two. 

“Yes, nice to meet you I am Maria Hill the vice principal and school counsellor,” Mrs. Hill says while standing up from her chair and walking over to one of the countless cupboards. She searches through it for a little while before she pulls out a folder filled with a ton of paper. 

“Your son will be sharing a room with Theodore Altman, Theodore is in the same grade as William and they have a few classes together so he will also be able to show William around,” Mrs. Hill explains as she passes the folder and a key to Rebecca. Rebecca passes the key to Billy and opens the folder. 

“You will have to sign a few things and then William should be ready to go get settled in his room,” Mrs. Hill adds before talking Rebecca through everything and telling her where to sign. Billy looks at the key his mother had passed him. 616 is engraved into a small key chain dangling from the key to Billy’s new home. 

After about five minutes Rebecca is finished signing everything and Mrs. Hill says goodbye before she goes back behind her desk and types again. Rebecca turns to Billy with a smile and they leave the office. 

“So here is your timetable, school starts at eight am, breakfast is between six thirty and seven thirty am, dinner is at seven pm, lights out is at eleven pm, and everything else is written down on here,” Rebecca says and passes Billy his timetable. She then proceeds to explaining every single detail about the school rules, which Billy just ignores while they walk to his room. While Rebecca is explaining Billy gives a agreeing hmm or a nodding to make it seem as if he was actually paying attention. 

The place was huge and getting to Billy’s room took longer than he thought it would, as did his mother’s explanation of the rules. The floor is wooden but the middle is covered in an old dark red carpet. The walls go up extremely high and are covered in some old fashioned wallpaper and a ton of old pictured that are just catching dust. 

When they finally get to room 616 Rebecca finished and smiles at her son. “You are going to have a good time here,” Rebecca says and hugs Billy tightly. “Everything is going to be better now,” she adds before letting go of Billy. Billy smiles back and takes the bags his mother was carrying from her. Billy wants to enter his room but is stopped by his mother’s words.

“Call us every week end and tell us how everything is going, your father does agree that this institute is good for you but he worries a lot about you so please don’t forget,” Rebecca explains but Billy knows that it is her who worries. 

“I won’t forget mum,” Billy replied and gives her a quick hug. “But I have to sort my room out and unpack now,” he adds and turns back to the door. 

“Bye, Honey,” Mrs. Kaplan says before kissing Billy on the back of the head and leaving. “Be good,” she shouts as she walks down the hallway and towards the stairs. 

Billy takes his keys and unlocks the door. He carries his heavy bags into the room and looks around. There are two single beds, one is made and the other looks like somebody just got out of it. There are posters of comic book heroes; one of Captain Marvel, two of Nightwing, one of the Batfamily, with Kathy, Barbara, Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, Cassandra, Stephanie and Bruce, and one of the Avengers, and there are also a few posters of villains; one of The Joker and one of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. Billy smiles as he scans the posters, he is glad that his roommate likes comic books since he was bullied for liking them at his old school. Besides the posters there are also some drawings pinned up in spots that the posters don’t cover. Billy looks at the drawing more closely, they are just of random things like trees or birds or eyes but they are extremely good. 

After staring at his roommate’s side of the room for probably far too long Billy turns to his side, which looks very sad in comparison. He moves his bags over to his bed and pushes them under it as he decides to unpack later on. Billy lies down on top of the duvet and turns over facing his pillow. 

*

Billy opens his eyes when he hears the click of the door. He slowly moves his head to see a muscular boy with golden blond hair enter the room with nothing but a towel to cover his parts. The boy, who must be Theodore, doesn’t seem to have noticed Billy since he starts to hum some kind of song. Billy smiles as Theodore hums. The tanned guy is facing the wall, his back to Billy, as he suddenly takes the towel off and starts to dry himself off. Billy’s eyes widen and he takes a deep breath, breathing in his own saliva causing him to cough loudly. Theodore tenses up and turns around, covering himself with the towel. 

“What the hell?” Theodore shouts as he tries to put the towel back around his waist. Billy is coughing his lungs out and tries to regain his breath to answer. It takes a good ten or fifteen seconds before Billy can answer.

“Shit sorry, I…I’m Billy your roommate…I didn’t know you were in the shower…I swear I wasn’t staring…I just woke up…” Billy rambles and looks away while the other boy is quickly putting on clothes.

“You scared me dude. I thought you wouldn’t be here until tomorrow. I’m Teddy by the way,” Teddy replies as he puts a t-shirt on. He is now fully dressed. 

“You didn’t see anything did you?” Teddy asks as he goes through his messy hair with the towel. Billy blushes bright red.

“N…no,” he lies and looks at the floor. Teddy sighs loudly and sits down on his own bed.

“Shit, what a great first impression,” Teddy says and laughs softly, revealing his dimples. Billy looks up and smiles at Teddy. Teddy has an amazing laugh and those dimples are just wooow… Billy thinks to himself before snapping back into reality.

“It’s okay, I won’t tell anybody about your tramp stamp,” Billy jokes and laughs. Billy looks at Teddy’s face more closely and notices that Teddy has two black helixes in his left ear, a silver industrial in his right ear and a black stud in each ear. 

“Thank you, that is very kind,” Teddy replies and laughs too. “So, it’s the middle of the school year how come you only just came here now?” he asks and leans forward. 

“My mum thought it would be good for my character development,” Billy says while rolling his eyes. He leaves the part with the bullying out although that is probably extremely obvious since he still has a large bruise on his right eye. 

“Oh…My mum said the same thing. “Being away from home and forming new friendships is good for your future life and further development of your character”,” Teddy mocks and laughs. Billy is sure that Teddy noticed the bruise and doesn’t fully believe him but he seems nice enough to ignore it. 

“We have weird mums,” Billy replies and smiles. 

“Oh yes we do but they just want what is best for us,” Teddy says and smiles back. Billy looks at Teddy’s smile and grins before he notices that he is staring and blushed again.

“Soooo, I like your posters,” Billy announces and looks at the different posters. Teddy smiles in response. 

“You do? My last roommate hated comic books and he made me take them down,” Teddy explains with a small frown. 

“I love comic books, I have some posters that I wanted to hang up later,” Billy responds with a wide smile. Billy isn’t passionate about a lot but when it comes to comics his heart beats faster. 

“Cool! I’m glad I finally have a roommate that appreciates this art form like I do,” Teddy is now smiling again. He stands up and walks over to one of the two closets. He looks through it for a few seconds before getting a large box out. Teddy puts the books in front of Billy and sits on the floor behind it. 

“These are all the comics I have, feel free to borrow any of them,” Teddy says with a smile as he opens the box, revealing a ton of comics, ordered by Marvel and DC and then in the different groups. 

“Oh my god! That is amazing,” Billy answers and pulls his bag out from under his bed. He opens the bag and takes out his comic books. “I couldn’t bring all of mine but these are my favourite,” Billy explains as he puts the comics on the floor. Teddy looks through the pile of comic books while Billy looks through the box in front of him. The silence is broken every few seconds when one of the two lets out an excited sound after finding a comic book they especially like. 

“Billy, I love your taste in comics,” Teddy says once he is finished looking through the pile. Billy smiles and blushes a little at that compliment. 

“Thank you, you have an amazing collection of comic books,” he answers and closes the box again. Teddy smiles when Billy says that. Billy likes Teddy more and more each second he is in this room. 

“We are going to be great friends,” Teddy replies with a wide grin on his face. Billy’s eyes widen and his stomach tenses a little as Teddy says this. Billy hasn’t had a real friend in ages and Tommy really doesn’t count since they never really see each other and when they see each other they just argue like brothers, which they somewhat are. 

“Are you okay?” Teddy asks and looks at Billy with concern. Billy snaps out of his thoughts about his old school.

“What? Ehm…yeah I’m fine. I was just thinking,” Billy answers and fakes a smile. Teddy doesn’t look convinced but a knock on the door keeps him from asking any questions. Teddy stands up and opens the door.

“Sup,” Tommy says and walks past Teddy and over to Billy. He jumps onto the bed and claps Billy on the back. “So dorkface, how are you liking this shithole?” Tommy asks Billy. Tommy is holding a cigarette in his right hand.

“First of all don’t just come in here and jump on my bed, second of all don’t smoke on my bed or in this room, thirdly leave me alone you dickhead,” Billy answers and takes Tommy’s cigarette away and throws it out of the window. 

“Wow, I thought you would loosen up after getting away from Kessler and the other bullies,” Tommy says with a grin before taking another cigarette out and lighting it. Teddy takes that one away and puts it out with his fingers. 

“Billy said don’t smoke in here,” Teddy explains. Tommy raises his eyebrow and puts his cigarettes and lighter away. 

“I see you are both geeks,” Tommy responds while looking at the posters. He laughs softly to himself. “Only thing missing is that you are gay too,” Tommy adds with a large grin, knowing that Billy trusted him with that information. Billy’s expression goes from annoyed to angry as he pulls Tommy by the hem of his shirt and “throws” him out of the room. Teddy’s eyes widen as he watches the twins. 

“Fuck off! And don’t come back!” Billy shouts at Tommy. Tommy looks shocked since this was the first time he’s seen Billy like this. He slowly stands up and raises an eyebrow at Billy.

“Dude, I was just joking no need to be such a dick about it,” Tommy says before rolling his eyes and walking away. 

“Twat!” Billy shouts as he bangs the door. He rests his head against the door and tears roll over his cheek before he remembers that he isn’t alone. Billy quickly wipes away the tears before slowly turning around and looking at Teddy, who is looking at Billy with a mixture of scared, turned on, and worried; Billy was probably just imagining the second one. Teddy opens his mouth to say something but then closes it again.

“Sorry you had to see that,” Billy apologises quietly. Another tear rolls down Billy’s face, which he quickly wipes away. He walks to his bed and lies down on his stomach, his face pushed into the pillow. Billy feels his bed lowering down a little at his hip. He slowly looks and sees that Teddy is sitting next to him.

“Hey, it’s okay, I understand how you feel,” Teddy says and gives Billy a faint smile. “One of my friends, who I thought I could trust, told a bunch of people a secret I had,” he adds and his faint smile turns into a frown. “It really sucks. But you don’t have to worry that I’ll be weird around you or anything.” Billy in confused what Teddy means with secret, if he is gay too or if he means something else. 

“Thanks…and I’m sorry to hear that your friend did that,” Billy says and sits up, wiping away the tears that had formed. “I’m still trying to deal with this…with this being gay thing I guess,” he explains. Teddy gives him an assuring smile and puts his hand on Billy’s shoulder.

“Nothing to be ashamed off,” Teddy says before standing up and putting his box of comics away. “Lunch starts soon, do you want to join me?” Teddy asks with a smile. Billy stands up and nods straight away. He can’t remember the last time he’d been invited to join somebody at lunch, it definitely was a long time ago. Somebody, besides his parents or his little brothers, being nice to him was a nice change. 

“Cool, I’ll tell you what everything is on the way to the cafeteria,” Teddy responds to the nod. Billy takes his room key and leaves the room, followed by Teddy, who locks the room behind them. “You always have to lock the door; we have a few students who like to take stuff that isn’t theirs,” Teddy explains as they walk down the hallway. A tall boy with black hair, black nail varnish, and a taste for green clothing walks past Teddy and Billy and sticks his tongue out at them. “Him for example, that is Loki, I know weird name but apparently his parents are into Norse mythology…and it does fit since he likes pranking people,” Teddy says once Loki is out of sight. “He is nice though.” Billy listens and looks at Teddy as he talks.

“Lunch isn’t mandatory, breakfast and dinner is, if you don’t attend breakfast or dinner you won’t get privileges meaning no Wi-Fi password, no mobile phones, no laptop, no movie night, basically nothing that would be remotely electronic and fun,” Teddy clarifies. “But they already told you that right?” Teddy asks and looks at Billy. 

“Ehm…my mum told me about the rules but I didn’t really pay attention,” Billy says and rubs the back of his head. Teddy laughs softly and rolls his eyes.

“Not so into rules?” Teddy asks and raises his eyebrow. 

“Well I usually don’t break them even if I don’t know them so I don’t actually listen when the topic comes up,” Billy answers and laughs. Billy is convinced that he probably sounds like a total bore now but Teddy just shakes his head and laughs. 

“Okay so now you know the most important rule, food equals fun,” Teddy says and laughs. Billy smiles back at Teddy, enjoying the company and somebody actually laughing with him instead of about him.

“Anything else I need to know?” Billy asks. Teddy nods and opens his mouth to talk but is interrupted by a boy with brown hair and brown eyes who is about as tall as Billy.  
“New kid, Tommy said we’d have a new kid soon,” the boy says and smiles. “Robert Drake but you can call me Bobby,” Bobby says and holds his hand out. Billy shakes the hand of the boy, which is much colder than Billy’s. 

“Billy Kaplan, nice to meet you,” Billy responds and smiles. 

“Nice to meet you too. Wow…you look just like Tommy only without the permanently damaged hair from excessive bleaching,” Bobby says and laughs. “I mean it is cool but yours looks better,” he adds with a smile. 

“Thanks. Yeah, sadly we are twins,” Billy replies, thinking about what had happened earlier in his room. Billy’s jaw tenses and he bites the inside of his check so he won’t start crying again. Teddy notices this and acts.

“Okay stop flirting with Billy, we have to go now,” Teddy says and smiles at Bobby before putting his hand on Billy’s shoulder and starting to walk again. 

“I wasn’t flirting,” Bobby responds quickly and very defensive, while blushing a little. Teddy smiles and rolls his eyes since his comment was just a joke. 

“Thanks,” Billy says once they are away from Bobby. “I’m really angry at Tommy,” he adds. Teddy takes his hand off Billy’s shoulder and smiles.

“There is nothing to thank me for. I’d be really pissed at Tommy too,” Teddy replies. They walk past a group of others who all great Teddy and smile at Billy before getting to a stair case. “Main entrance is there, as you know since you walked in through there,” Teddy says while they walk down the stairs. “We are allowed to go out in our spare time but we have to be inside after ten and in our room by eleven but the teachers and staff don’t come looking if we are actually sleeping so as long as we are quiet we can have our lights on and be awake all night,” Teddy explains. “We aren’t allowed to leave the school grounds during the week but are free to leave at the weekends,” he adds. 

When they reach the bottom of the stairs Teddy walks left and Billy follows him. “Bathrooms, showers, cafeteria, nurse office, and the counsellors’ offices are this way, classrooms, labs, and teachers’ offices are on the right side when you come down the stairs,” Teddy says while they walk past the showers and towards the cafeteria. Billy nods and listens while Teddy is explaining everything. Billy would probably know this if he had listened to his mother but Teddy’s voice is sooooo much nicer than his mother’s and Billy likes listening to that voice more. “Any questions?” Teddy asks as they finally reach the cafeteria. 

“Ehm…yeah, are the showers group showers?” Billy asks and looks back towards the showers before joining Teddy in the queue for lunch, which isn’t very long right now.  
“No, the showers are all separated by cubicles so you can shower in peace,” Teddy answers and smiles. They both take a tray and put food unto them. Billy has a sandwich, a banana, and some water, Teddy has a sandwich, a soda, and some grapes. “Let me pay for you,” Teddy says as Billy pulls his wallet out to pay the lunch lady.

“No, I’ll pay myself you are doing more than enough for me today,” Billy responds but Teddy is quicker and already paid the lunch lady. Billy narrows his eyes at Teddy. “I’m going to pay your lunch tomorrow,” Billy demands and follows Teddy to a table towards the back of the large cafeteria. There are three other boys already sitting there. One has bleached hair like Tommy and seems to have a thing against covering skin since his tank top barely covers anything. One looks like his face was photoshopped, he has blonde blond hair and blue eyes. And the third one has his hair buzzed short and has dark skin. 

“Billy meet Noh-Varr, Warren, and Eli,” Teddy says and nudges towards the person he is introducing, as they sit down. “Guys, this is Billy, he is new and he has to share a room with me,” Teddy jokes. 

“Nice to meet you,” Warren, the photoshopped guy, says and flashes his white teeth at Billy. Billy smiles back.

“You’re lucky to have Teddy as your roommate, the only other rooms that are free are with Loki, Scott, and Greg,” Eli explains and holds his hand out for Billy to shake it. Billy shakes Eli’s hand and smiles.

“Yeah Teddy is a great roomy. Loki seemed nice and I haven’t met the other two yet,” Billy responds. Billy looks at Noh-Varr, who has headphones in his ears and is quietly tapping his foot to his music. 

“Don’t worry he is more social than he seems, he mixes music and likes to test it out before he lets us listen to it,” Teddy says and smiles at Billy. “He is in a room with Tommy, Warren is in a room with Bobby, and Eli is sharing a room with Jonas, you’ll probably see him at dinner later,” Teddy adds. 

“Okay I can’t wait,” Billy says with a smile, so far everybody seems very nice. This is one of the best days for Billy in a long time but he can’t get rid of that feeling that this isn’t going to last for very long. Billy quickly picks his sandwich up before he starts to overthink stuff again. The group of boys is sitting there eating in silence with just a few taps of Noh-Varr’s foot very now and then. 

“I bet you can’t catch them with your mouth,” Warren breaks the silence and points at the grapes on Teddy’s tray. Teddy raises his eyebrow before picking one of the grapes up and tossing it in the air. The grape flies and comes back down, landing in Teddies mouth. Teddy grins at Warren and chews the grape. “What if I throw it?” Warren asks and takes a grape. 

“Go on. What do I get if I catch it?” Teddy asks and raises his eyebrow again. Warren thinks for a few seconds.

“Five dollars?” Warren suggests. Teddy nods, making Warren smile. Warren stands up and walks away before turning around and throwing the grape. The grape flies towards Teddy and it looks like he was going to catch it when a muscular guy with short brown hair catches it. The guy squeezes the grape in his hand before rubbing it against Teddy’s forehead. 

“Fuck off, Greg,” Eli says with an angry look on his face. Warren comes back and narrows his eyes at Greg. Noh-Varr takes his headphones off and looks at Teddy. Billy’s stomach suddenly tenses as the large guy called Greg looks at Teddy before looking at Billy. 

“Don’t be rude, Eli,” Greg says in a cocky tone. “I’m just here to say hello to the new kid,” he adds and looks at Billy. He takes his hand off Teddy’s forehead and walks toward Billy. Greg putts hands on Billy’s shoulders and squeezes him hardly. Billy winces but tries to keep quiet. Greg just grins before taking his hands off Billy. Billy’s shirt is now covered in grape. “Soo two faggots sharing a room I see?” Greg asks with a look of disgust on his face.

“Seriously Greg just leave him alone,” Noh-Varr tells him in a calmer tone than Eli. The guys that came with Greg just laugh while Greg looks at Noh-Varr. Teddy, who by now has wiped the grape off his face, stands up and turns towards Greg. Greg is slightly taller but Teddy looks more muscular. 

“Go away,” Teddy says, his face looks tensed and his fists are clenched. Billy now understands why Eli said that he was lucky not to be in a room with Greg. 

“Or what? Are you and your faggoty friends going to hit me with your handbags otherwise?” Greg laughs and so do his brain dead followers. 

“You are eagerly trying to say that we are gay, sure you aren’t the one who likes penis?” Warren says and acts shocked. Greg narrows his eyes at Warren before grabbing the hem of Warrens top and pulling him closer. 

“If you say something like that again I will punch all your teeth in, you understand?” Greg asks with an extremely angry look on his face. Billy suddenly stands up and pushed Greg away from Warren. Greg doesn’t go far since he is a lot heavier than Billy and Billy isn’t very strong. 

“Leave us alone!” Billy shouts in an angry tone that doesn’t sound like him at all. Greg laughs before leaving with his friends. Billy is shaking and his eyes start to tear. “Sorry, I think I should go now,” Billy says and leaves the cafeteria, running back to his room. Greg isn’t close and he doesn’t know anybody else so he doesn’t really care that he is crying now. When he gets to his room Billy gets his key out of his pocket and tries to unlock the door but his hands are shaking too hard and he drops the key. Somebody picks the key up and gives it to Billy. Billy looks up and sees Teddy through his tear filled eyes. “Th…Thanks,” Billy responds and takes the key. He quickly unlocks the door and goes inside, followed by Teddy. 

“Are you okay?” Teddy asks as Billy sits down on his own bed. Billy is still shaking and his eyes are still filled with tears. Teddy sits down next to Billy and puts his arm around him. Teddy softly rubs Billy’s shoulder, trying to calm him down. 

“I…I’m sorry…I’m probably not who you expected as a roommate…some over emotional faggot…” Billy says and winces at his own words. Teddy shakes his head and continues to rub Billy’s shoulder.

“Don’t say that word, I hate it. And you are right, I expected some homophobic dickhead with bad taste but I got a guy with amazing taste in media, who understands the struggle of not being “normal”, and who doesn’t tell others about secret tramp stamps,” Teddy says and smiles. Billy laughs at that last comment and wipes his tears away. 

“Your friends probably think I’m stupid,” Billy says and frowns. He has stopped crying now and Teddy stopped rubbing his arm. 

“Trust me, they’ve seen worse, you should have seen me when Greg told them I was gay, I had a full on panic attack and breakdown in front of them before running away for two days,” Teddy says and laughs at himself. “They accepted me straight away but I was sooo worried that they would react like Greg that I freaked myself out more than necessary,” Teddy explains. He lets go of Billy and looks into his face. “They’ll think you are awesome for shoving Greg away like that and they will be fine with you being gay when you decide to tell them,” Teddy adds with a smile. Billy smiles back and wipes the last few tears from his face. 

“That was pretty cool how I pushed him,” Billy says and laughs. “I haven’t told anybody besides Tommy yet and he just joked about it, like you saw today but I guess now you and your friends know too,” Billy sighs and goes through his dark hair with his hand. 

“My friend won’t believe anything anybody else says, you have to tell them yourself…well except for Eli…” Teddy says. “They are pretty great when it comes to that kind of topic,” he adds. Billy smiles and Teddy smiles back. Teddy very softly punches Billy’s shoulder. “You’ll be fine, don’t worry, I’m here to protect you now,” Teddy jokes and laughs. 

“Thank you,” Billy says and smiles. This day hasn’t been as expected but Billy can’t say that there weren't some nice surprises and all in all, if you forget Tommy and Greg, this place will probably be great for Billy, and his mental and physical health.


	2. The day comes to an end (I'm working on doing better titles sorry)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So far Billy had met his adorably dorky roommate Teddy Altman and the friends of said roommate. After a brief encounter with the school bully, Greg, Billy almost has a panic attack, through which Teddy helps him.   
> What follows next? More panic? More psychotic school idiots? More adorably dorky roommate interaction? More students to meet? Read to find out...

“Are you feeling better now?” Teddy asks after a few minutes of silence. Billy looks at Teddy and smiles. He wasn’t feeling great or amazing but better was a way to describe what he was feeling.

“Yeah, thank you,” Billy answers before standing up. “I’m going to have a shower now,” Billy adds as he is taking towels out of his bag. 

“Okay, I’m going back to the others. You can join us once you’re done, if you feel like it,” Teddy says with a smile before standing up and leaving the room. “See you later,” he shouts before closing the door. Billy sighs softly before gathering all his stuff together. He had a shower this morning before leaving but showers usually help him relax and calm down. After he has all his stuff together he leaves the dorm room, locking the door behind him. Billy ignores the glares and stares from the other guys as he walks down the hallway and towards the stairs. 

Once he is in the bathroom, which leads to the shower cubicles Billy starts to relax again. Ignoring stares and glares is what he had been doing all the time in his old school for what seems like ages but it still makes Billy feel uncomfortable. Billy enters one of the shower cubicles and hangs his stuff up on the hooks on one of the walls. He then turns around to close the door but is stopped by Greg. Billy winces and moves back a few steps.

“Aww did I frighten the little fairy?” Greg says and laughs. They are alone so Greg must have left his friends behind to get a private revenge. “There is no need to be scared, I’m just going to beat the shit out of you,” Greg adds with a devious grin. Billy moves back a few more steps and swallows hard. Shouting probably won’t do anything since they are alone in the bathroom. Greg locks the cubicle door and moves closer to Billy before showing him into the wall. Billy is still fully dressed since he was planning on getting undressed in the cubicle. 

“Leave me alone,” Billy mumbles, which just makes Greg’s grin wider. “Why are you doing this?” Billy asks. Greg narrows his eyes at Billy and moves closer again.

“What do you think, Nancy?” Greg demands in a now angry tone. “Fags don’t push me around. Especially not you,” he adds before pushing Billy against the wall again. You’d think after a few year of being pushed into lockers Billy would have gotten used to the pain but that is not the case. Billy feels a strong pain in the back of his head, which had hit the stone wall. 

Greg steps forward and goes to punch Billy in the face but Billy ducks, making Greg punch the wall behind him. He flinches, obviously in pain as he pulls his now bleeding hand away from the wall. “You’ll pay for this faggot,” he says before kneeing Billy in the stomach. Billy falls to his knees and knows what is coming next. He takes a few punches to the face, making him fall back against the wall, before Greg then kicks Billy in the stomach. Billy winces with each kick and a loud groan leaves his mouth with the harder ones. After five or six kicks Greg seems to be bored so he stops and kneels down next to Billy. “If you ever even look at me again you know what is coming,” he growls and stands up again. “Pathetic queer,” he says and spits on Billy. Greg then turns the shower on and leaves the cubicle. 

Billy lies there for a few seconds until he can’t hear Greg’s footsteps any more. He slowly sits up, wincing with every move, and moves into the corner of the cubicle. His clothes are now drenched in blood, which Billy presumes he spat out while being kicked, and water from the shower. Billy just stares at the wall, a blank expression on his face. Getting beaten up never really made Billy cry it was more the words that hurt him. Taking a beating is something he has gotten somewhat used to over the years, the shoving is still newish but kicks and punches were a daily thing back at his old school. Well apparently also at this new school. 

Billy tries to stand up, a stinging pain in his stomach every time he only moves the smallest muscle makes him groan. He turns off the shower, grabs his towel and tries to dry his hair with it. When he looks at the towel he sees that it is covered in blood. 

“Shit,” Billy mumbles and continues drying himself off. He strips his clothes and sees bruises starting to form from where Greg had kicked him. After drying himself and changing into the clothes he took with him he leaves the cubicle. 

Loki is standing there applying eyeliner to his waterline and looking at the mirror. When he sees Billy behind him in the mirror his eyes widen and he turns around. 

“What happened to you?” Loki asks with a look of concern on his face. Billy just shrugs, which makes him wince in pain. Loki quickly walks over to Billy to help him stand. “I’m taking you to the nurse,” Loki sounds concerned, which surprises Billy since Eli said he was lucky not to be in a room with Loki. 

“No…I’m fine,” Billy says quietly, obviously not fine. “I’m…I’m just going to…go to…my room,” he adds wincing in every break. Loki doesn’t look like he approves.

“At least let me help you get to your room alive,” Loki demands, still holding Billy up right. Billy nods slowly and tries to smile but doesn’t find the strength to. Loki somewhat carries Billy back to his room, takes the key from Billy to unlock the door, and helps him inside and onto his bed. “Who did this to you?” Loki asks with a now angry expression. 

“Nobody…I slipped in the shower,” Billy lies, obviously not convincingly as Loki raises his eyebrow. 

“You have bruises on your face and can hardly stand straight, that doesn’t come from slipping in the shower,” Loki says and sits on the floor in front of Billy. “Tell me who did this.” 

“No,” Billy winces. Loki looks extremely concerned now. He quickly grabs into his pocket and pulls out a packet of tablets.

“Here, these are paracetamol they’ll help against the pain,” Loki explains and pushes one of the tables out of the packet. “I always carry them around in case I get a headache from seeing to many stupid people,” Loki jokes and laughs softly. Billy smiles faintly and takes the tablet. “I’m getting your roommate,” Loki says and stands up.

“No, please…don’t,” Billy mumbles and slowly sits up, still in pain. “I’ve…had worse beatings,” Billy adds. Loki’s eyes widen at that information.

“Shit,” Loki says quietly. “I’m sorry,” he adds and frowns at Billy. Billy shrugs and slowly stands up. He is still in a ton of pain but he really has had worse things happen. Loki wants to help Billy but he just shrugs him off. 

“I’m fine,” Billy quickly responds to Loki’s attempt at helping. “Thank you for helping but I don’t want help right now,” Billy admits. Loki raises his eyebrows.

“You were hardly able to stand a couple of minutes ago,” Loki starts. “Get over yourself and let me help you, you idiot,” Loki adds and laughs. “Now sit down.” Billy refuses to sit down. 

“I’m not sitting down, I’m fine,” Billy says and heads for the door. Loki rolls his eyes and follows Billy. They both leave the room and Billy locks the door. 

“What are you doing now?” Loki asks still concerned. 

“I’m going to the cafeteria,” Billy answers and starts walking. Loki looks at him, not moving from where he is standing. “Are you coming?” Billy adds and Loki comes after him. 

“Your friends don’t like me though,” Loki says and Billy can swear he saw a small frown. Billy just shrugs and continues walking. His stomach and face are still hurting a bit but it’s nothing he hasn’t felt before. Loki is still looking at Billy with worried glazes, which Billy just tries to ignore. 

“How come they don’t like you,” Billy asks after a while. Loki looks at the floor and frowns as they walk down the hallway. 

“I did a few things I regret last year,” Loki answers. “I’m trying to change and I’ve come quite far but I guess they haven’t really forgotten anything that had happened.” Loki sighs softly and looks up at Billy. “You know that feeling when you just want to leave your past behind and start your future as a new self but you just can’t because you are pushed back again and again?” Billy bites his check as he remembers the events of the last few years, the daily beating and the torment Kessler put him under and how even though he is at a new place now, there is somebody new to beat him up and torment him. 

“Y…yeah,” Billy replies with a crack in his voice. Loki gives him a faint smile of empathy and understanding. 

*

“Fuck, what happened to you?” Noh-Varr asks when Billy and Loki enter the cafeteria. Billy doesn’t answer he just sits down. Loki sits down next to Billy and looks at the others at the table. Teddy isn’t there at the table. Eli raises an eyebrow at Loki, obviously wondering what the hell he was doing there.

“He slipped in the shower, I found him there,” Loki answers for Billy. He is far better liar than Billy but not everybody looks convinced. Billy’s stomach tenses and he feels a strong pain, he fights back a wince though.

“Are you okay?” Eli demands. Billy nods and gives him a faint smile. 

“I’m just really clumsy,” Billy says and laughs, this was not a lie. Billy looks around and notices Teddy wasn’t there. “Where is Teddy?” Billy asks trying to change the subject. 

“He is helping Jonas with some science thing that nobody else understands…I actually doubt that Teddy understands it either,” Warren answers and laughs softly. “He’ll be back in like ten minutes or so.” Billy smiles as Warren flashes his white teeth with his bright laugh. 

“What are you doing here,” Eli finally asks Loki. Billy’s eyes widen at the sudden question and tone in Eli’s voice.

“I asked him if he wanted to come…he helped me earlier,” Billy says and raises an eyebrow at Eli. “Do you have a problem with him being here?” Loki looks at Billy with a look that says stop it before standing up. 

“Its fine I’ll leave you alone,” Loki responds, he sounds hurt but he smiles. “See you later, Billy,” he adds before leaving the table and walking out of the cafeteria, a slight sway in his walk. 

“What did he do to you?” Billy asks with a confused and angry look. Eli laughs at that question, which just confuses Billy even more.

“He didn’t tell you? Of course he didn’t!” Eli says, anger is clearly audible in his voice. “He is a thief, a prankster, a weirdo. He used us to get what he wanted, he tricked us into trusting him but I won’t do that mistake again!” Eli almost shouts. Warren looks at him with a worried look and Noh-Varr rolls his eyes. 

“Calm down dude, that was so long ago. Loki apologised and everything but Eli holds a grudge for a very long time,” Noh-Varr explains to Billy. Billy listens while Warren and Noh-Varr try to calm Eli down again. After what seemed like ages Eli finally calms down and the three guys look at Billy. Billy smiles at them awkwardly, feeling weird. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset anybody,” Billy says but he doesn’t feel bad for bringing Loki since Loki was extremely nice to him and explained himself to Billy. Obviously Eli doesn’t forget or doesn’t want to forget and look forward but Billy can’t do anything about that so he just drops the topic. “I think I’m going to lie down for a bit my head is hurting,” Billy adds before standing up and smiling. “I’ll see you at dinner.” Billy leaves the group and walks towards the staircase but guess who is at the top of the staircase, Greg and his friends. When Billy sees Greg he quickly turns and walks into the direction of the classrooms and labs. 

Billy finds a door that is unlocked and enters the room. Teddy, Loki, and some guy with brown hair, tanned skin and brown eyes that look somewhat gold in the light are in the room, which looks like a bomb hit it with metal parts and wires lying around everywhere. The guy, who is probably Jonas, is working with a machine in the middle of the room. Teddy looks confused but like he is trying to help. Loki in sitting on the large desk at the front of the room and watching the two other boys amused. 

Loki looks over and sees Billy before waving him over to sit with him. Billy sits down and pulls his legs up onto the desk and against his chest. Teddy and Jonas haven’t noticed him yet. After a loud electric noise appears Jonas steps away from the machine with his hair standing from his head. Teddy looks at Jonas and laughs softly, which makes Loki and Billy laugh too.

“Billy! What happened? Who did that? Are you okay?” Teddy asks when he suddenly sees Billy sitting there, he seems extremely worried. Billy rubs the back of his head and fakes an embarrassed smile. Teddy walks over to him with a look of concern on his face.

“I slipped and fell in the shower…nobody did this to me…I’m fine,” Billy answers. Teddy sits down on the other side of Billy and looks at his face more closely. 

“Did you go to the nurse?” Teddy winces when he looks at the new bruises covering Billy’s face. Billy probably shouldn’t feel good about that but seeing that Teddy is so worried makes Billy smile.

“He refused to go, I gave him some paracetamol though,” Loki replies and looks at Teddy with a smile. “Stubborn little boyfriend you have there,” Loki jokes and laughs softly. Billy blushes, which with the bruises is barely visible. Teddy laughs and rolls his eyes at Loki’s statement.

“Wow that doesn’t look good,” Jonas suddenly says and walks over. He flashes a light into Billy’s eyes and looks at the bruises. “You probably have a mild concussion and these bruises are going to stay for quite some time,” Jonas explains and Billy can’t help but hear the impressed tone in Jonas’ voice. Teddy frowns at Billy and Billy’s stomach tenses. “You can take a beating,” Jonas adds. 

“Greg did this didn’t he?” Teddy asks quietly, his frown turning into a mixture of anger and concern. Billy sighs softly and looks at the floor. “I will kill him!” Teddy almost shouts. He jumps off the desk, his face now filled completely with anger and his fist clenched tightly. 

“No, I’m fine I just have to stay away from him and he’ll leave me alone. If you come after him things would just turn out worse,” Billy explains.

“Billy your face is covered in bruises and you probably have a concussion! Things are already pretty bad!” Teddy is still angry but his fists are no longer clenched. 

“I don’t want others to get hurt though,” Billy says with a frown. “I can take a beating but if somebody else gets hurt because of me…I won’t be able to take that.” Billy sighs and lets his legs go. 

“But we can’t just not do anything,” Teddy replies quietly. Loki puts his hand on Billy’s shoulder.

“Teddy is right you know,” Loki adds. Jonas nods in agreement. Billy doesn’t want them to do anything although he is happy that they want to help him. 

“Please, could we just leave it be for now, I don’t want to pull you into my crap,” Billy responds and looks at Teddy with a sad expression. Teddy looks back with a frown before sighing. 

“Okay but if he touches you again I will beat him up,” Teddy answers. Billy smiles and jumps off the desk before hugging Teddy.

“Thank you,” Billy mumbles. This is awkward…stop hugging him Billy thinks to himself and lets go of Teddy. “Sorry.” Billy laughs embarrassedly. Teddy blushes slightly and smiles at Billy. Billy turns around when Loki laughs at the two boys. 

“Sooo, you are Billy, Teddy was talking about you,” Jonas says while walking back to his weird machine. “I’m Jonas.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Billy replies and smiles. Jonas is now back to work and Teddy goes back to helping him while Loki and Billy watch and occasionally laugh when Jonas gets shocked again.   
*

“Are you sure you don’t need help with that?” Teddy asks as he watches Billy trying to put up a Young Justice poster. “You look like you can’t actually reach.” Teddy takes the top of the poster and some tape and sticks it against the wall, hardly even stretching. Billy narrows his eyes at Teddy. He’d been trying to get it straight for the last ten minutes or so and Teddy just does it with one try. 

“Show off,” Billy mumbles and goes to pick up another poster. Teddy laughs softly, goes back to his bed and picks the comic book he was reading up again. 

“You should learn to accept help,” Teddy says and shakes his head slowly, a smile on his lips. Billy looks at Teddy and sticks his tongue out. “Very mature.” Teddy laughs again. 

“I’m capable of taking care of my posters,” Billy replies and rolls his eyes, faking being annoyed but he can’t help smiling. Billy stretches again and puts another poster, this time one with Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, up on the wall next to his bed. When he turns around he notices that Teddy was staring. Teddy quickly looks away and pretends to continue reading. “Were you staring at my butt?” Billy asks with a grin on his face. 

“No,” Teddy answers but he blushes straight away. Billy smiles and sits down on his bed. All his posters are hung up now and his clothes are packed away in his closet. Billy raises an eyebrow at Teddy as Teddy desperately tries not to smile. “Okay maybe I was but you were looking at my naked butt so I’m not as bad as you,” Teddy says and smiles. 

“That was an accident,” Billy defends himself. 

“Hmmm, sure it was,” Teddy jokes and looks back at his comic book. “So was my staring then.” Billy smiles and lies down on his bed. After Jonas finished whatever he was trying to build Teddy and Billy went back to their room to settle Billy in. They’ve been in their room for a couple of hours now and Billy has been sorting his stuff out while Teddy was offering help, which Billy didn’t accept. Now both sides of the room are covered in posters, photos, and personal belongings, which make the room look a lot homier. 

“Dinner starts in half an hour,” Teddy says, his eyes still fixed on the comic book. “After dinner we get the Wi-Fi password for tomorrow, which probably will be the same as always.” Billy looks over at Teddy and raises his eyebrow.

“How come?” Billy asks. Teddy puts the comic book down and looks at Billy.

“Apparently everybody here likes food and Wi-Fi. The password has been the same since I got here. Kathrine_Bishop,” Teddy answers. “Warren said Kathrine is the name of Mr. Bishop’s daughter and Mr. Bishop funds this school,” Teddy explains. 

*

Billy and Teddy enter the cafeteria together and after getting food they sit down with Warren, Eli, Noh-Varr, Jonas, and two other guys Billy hasn’t met yet. Billy looks around and sees that Loki is sitting towards the back of the cafeteria with Bobby and some blonde guy. The other guys are already eating when Teddy and Billy sit down. 

“Hey,” Warren says before stabbing his food with a fork. “Scott and Hank meet Billy,” Warren adds when the two other guys look at Billy with a confused look on their faces. One of the guys in quite slim and is wearing a pair of red sunglasses, the other one is extremely broad and has very large hands. “Billy meet Scott and Hank,” Warren points at the guy with the glasses when saying Scott and at the huge guy when saying Hank. 

“Nice to meet you,” Billy replies and smiles at the two guys. Scott stays quiet and continues eating while Hank smiles back. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Billy, Warren and Noh-Varr told me about you. I hear you shoved Greg during your first encounter with him,” Hank says with excitement in his voice. “I see you get into a lot of fights,” he adds when looking at Billy’s bruised face. 

“He’s a feisty one,” Teddy replies and smiles at Billy. Billy smiles at Teddy before eating a bit of the food in front of him. 

Suddenly there is a shrill ringing sound coming from the speakers, which are hanging in every corner of the cafeteria. “What is that?” Billy asks Teddy. 

“Announcements, you’ll get uses to the sound,” Teddy answers and puts his fork down before a voice comes from the speakers. 

“Good evening students, I hope you are enjoying your dinner. As you may have noticed this school lacks students and to carry on the education at this facility we are forced to turn this all male boarding school into a school for all genders so please welcome the female students form our sister school,” the voice, which sounds like vice principle Hill, explains. Then a group of around 40 or 50 girls enter the cafeteria. 

“We will soon start renovations on the bathrooms but until then we are sorry to inform you that the toilets will be unisex for a little while,” Mrs. Hill continues. Some of the guys from a different corner of the cafeteria whistle and shout out Yeeeeah when they hear that, which makes Billy roll his eyes. Billy looks at the girls and sees that some of them look clearly annoyed with the whistling guys. 

“There are new rules though. First of all no male will be in a female dorm and no female will be in a male dorm room after ten pm. Secondly there will be no sexual relations between female and male students at any time. Thirdly female and male students will dress in separate dressing rooms before P.E. And lastly there will be separate shower times for each gender until we have the new showers installed. We are terrible sorry for the inconvenience,” Mrs. Hill finishes and there is a muffled click.

The girls are just standing there looking around at the guys while the guys look back at the girls. Suddenly one of the girls, a blue eyed girl with long black hair, which is pulled back into a pony tail, rolls her eyes and walks towards the food counter to get some food. Shorter after her a girl with green eyes and black hair that has blue and gold highlights through it, walks to the counter with a girl that has curly black hair and darker skin. Both those girls look slightly pissed off. It takes a couple of seconds before the rest of the girls start moving. 

The guys go back to eating and talking while the girls get food and sit down in groups. When Billy and the others at his table continue eating the first girl sits down with them and starts eating without saying anything. Teddy looks at the girl with a smile and the girl looks back at him and gives him a nod.

“Hey,” she says after swallowing what is in her mouth. The group replies with heys and hellos. “I’m Kate.” Kate puts her folk into her mouth and continues eating. 

“Wait, you’re Kathrine Bishop right?” Warren asks. “We’ve meet before at one of my father’s dinners.” 

“Yep that’s me,” she replies. “And before you ask yes my father owns this place,” she adds as if it were nothing special. “That does not mean you have to be up tight and weird around me though because I hate people that are up tight.” Billy notices the annoyed sound in Kate’s voice. The two other girls sit down at the table too and start eating.

“I’m Teddy, this is Billy,” Teddy starts and points towards Billy. Billy smiles at Kate. “That is Noh-Varr, that is Scott, that is Hank, Eli is the grumpy one there, and that is Jonas, and you already know Warren,” Teddy continues and points at the corresponding people after saying their names. 

“I’m America and this is Laura,” the girl with the curly hair says and gives the group a faint smile. Laura doesn’t say anything and just eats. After a few awkward seconds the group starts to talk again. Warren, Hank, Scott, and Eli are talking together while Kate, Teddy, Noh-Varr, Billy, America and Laura are talking with each other, well Laura isn’t talking very much but she seems to be listening. Noh-Varr occasionally tries to flirt with Kate but she seems to not be interested and ignores his comments. 

“Who is your friend,” a voice says from behind Billy before he is pushed to make space by Tommy, who now sits between Billy and Teddy and is looking at Kate. “Why didn’t you call me over, lil bro?” Tommy adds. Billy tries to stay calm but the annoyance is visible on his face. 

“That is Kate, she is rich and popular so she is clearly out of your league,” Billy answers and looks at his plate. “And you know why I didn’t call you over,” Billy mumbles. 

“Well somebody is in a great mood,” Tommy says and rolls his eyes. Tommy ruffles Billy’s hair. ”You’re not still pissed are you? You are totally over reacting.” Billy picks his food up and leaves the table without a word. 

Billy can hear Kate ask what is up with him when he is walking away. He walks past other tables and ignores the people looking at him until he reaches the table where Loki, Bobby, that blond boy, and now two girls are sitting. Shortly after Billy gets there Teddy sits down next to him and smiles at Billy.

“Billy. Hey!” Loki exclaims when he sees Billy sitting down at the table. “Meet Cassie and Kamala.” Billy smiles at the two girls, one has blonde hair, which is parted in the middle and tied back into a low pony tail, and blue eyes and the other girl has brown hair and brown eyes, and is wearing a Captain Marvel top. “And this is Christian,” Loki adds and nods towards the blond boy. 

“Awesome shirt,” Billy and Teddy say to Kamala in unison, which makes Kamala grin in return. Billy blushes slightly and looks at Teddy with a shy smile. Teddy laughs softly and says “Two idiots one thought.” Loki rolls his eyes at the two. 

“You two are cute together,” Cassie tells them. Teddy blushes a little and laughs again.

“We aren’t together,” Billy responds defensively. Cassie gives him a look that says “Yeeeeah right” before smiling. 

“We were talking about teachers before you two came over,” Bobby says with a wicked grin on his face. “Teddy who is the worst teacher you know?” he asks. 

“Mr. Howlett, he has weird mood swings all the time,” Teddy answers. “But Mrs. Darkholme is really strict even though she teaches drama, which I love,” Teddy adds. “Though choice. What about you?”

“I haven’t had Mr. Howlett or Mrs. Darkholme yet, I have Mr. Rogers is history but I’ve heard Mrs. Darkholme is really bad. My least favourite is Mr. Eisenhardt he is always angry and weird,” Bobby replies. 

“I had him in R.E. last year I’m glad I have Mr. Odinson now,” Christian says. Loki cringes when he hears the name Odinson, which Billy finds somewhat amusing. “Does anybody here have Mrs. Maximoff? I hear she is one of the nicest teachers here,” Christian asks. 

“I have her in art,” Loki answers with a smile. “She is a great teacher unlike her brother, I have him in P.E. and it is the worst class ever! All we do is track and field athletics,” Loki adds with an annoyed look on his face. “Tommy loves him.” Billy hates track and field athletics and being in a P.E. class with Tommy would make that hatred even stronger. 

“My dad teaches science here,” Cassie says. “Mr. Lang. How is he?” she asks with curiosity in her voice. 

“I have him, he is really cool. Class with him isn’t boring unlike class with Mr. Richards,” Teddy replies. Billy can’t talk about the teachers yet but sitting there and listening to the others while they gossip about them makes him feel like he is part of something. In his old school nobody talked to him about teachers, well nobody talked to him full stop but now here he is with these people he only met today and they are already integrating him. 

“Who is the best teacher here?” Billy asks. 

“Mrs. Frost is great, she teaches art but my favourite is Mrs. Van Dyne, she does the drama class,” Bobby answers.

“Mrs. Frost is my favourite,” Christian replies with a smile. Teddy, Bobby, and Loki laugh at that statement.

“That is because she is your sister,” Loki objects while still laughing. “The best teacher here is Mrs. Romanova, she teaches linguistics, I swear she speaks like at least half a dozen languages,” Loki adds with an excited tone. 

“I have Mrs. Romanova too but my favourite teacher is probably Mrs. Maximoff although music with Mrs. Blaire is amazing,” Teddy says. 

“Yes!” Bobby, Loki, and Christian respond in unison. That makes Billy, Teddy, and the two girls laugh. “I love music with her,” Bobby adds. Billy smiles at the enthusiasm of this group when it comes to talking about teachers. 

“All my teachers at my old school were boring,” Kamala says with a small frown on her face. Cassie nods in agreement. 

“Same with me,” Billy responds and gives Kamala a faint smile. Kamala and Cassie smile back at Billy. 

*

After finishing dinner and talking about teacher Teddy and Billy go back to their room. It’s quarter to eight when they leave the cafeteria. On the way back to the room Teddy gets an idea and takes Billy’s hand before walking outside the large building and behind it, where Billy then sees an even larger garden, filled with trees, flowers, and other plants. 

“There is a treehouse up there,” Teddy says when they reach an old oak-tree. Teddy climes up the ladder, which is nailed against the trunk of the tree. Billy watches or stares as Teddy climes higher before snapping out of it and climbing up after him. 

Teddy lies down on his back and smiles looking up at the treehouse’s ceiling. Billy sits down and looks at Teddy.

“You know what?” Teddy asks. “Today has been a really cool day. I can’t remember the last time I had a conversation where I laughed so much. The other guys usually just talk about football and soccer or girls; I enjoyed having a different topic for once.” Billy smiles as Teddy rolls on his side to look at Billy, a smile across his face. “And now I have a really cool new roommate too,” Teddy adds. Billy rolls his eyes and shakes his head at that comment. 

“With some minor exceptions this has been the best day I’ve had in a very long time,” Billy replies. He lies down on his side and looks at Teddy. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve actually meet people as cool as you.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Teddy responds with a smile. “You deserve to have good days. You are a great guy.” Billy bites his lip as he blushes and a smile spreads across his face. “And you deserve to know people as cool as me,” Teddy adds with a fake cocky tone and a grin. Billy laughs softly, which makes Teddy laugh too. 

“You are such a dork,” Billy replies. 

“I know but so are you…I guess we are destined to be dorky roommates,” Teddy says and smiles before rolling back onto his back. Maybe more? Billy asks himself as he also rolls on his back, a large smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay sooo this chapter came quite "fast" and I don't know when the next one will come but I'm hoping to post at least two chapter per month if not a chapter like every week or so. 
> 
> Thank you for the nice comments so far, if there is anything you like or dislike please tell me, I can take criticism. 
> 
> There are a lot of characters named in this chapter, if you are confused and need like an overview I would be happy to give you one.


	3. Brotherly love and past midnight fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy has a bunch of first and finds something out about his brother, Tommy.  
> There is a trigger warning in this chapter.

Billy wakes up when he hears a soft laugh and feels an even softer hand slowly tap his shoulder. He opens his eyes and sees Teddy sitting next to him, a grin on his face. 

“Hello sleepyhead,” Teddy says with a smile. Billy blinks a few times before sitting up. They are still inside the treehouse. “You talk in your sleep,” Teddy adds and laughs softly. “Well there were more moans than anything else but still.” Billy’s eyes widen when he hears Teddy say that. He can’t remember what he was dreaming. 

“What was I saying?” Billy asks in a slightly worried tone. Teddy smiles, which doesn’t make Billy worry any less. 

“You said my name a few times…and you moaned…and at one point you look very concentrated,” Teddy explains his smile slowly turning into a small laugh. Billy blushes bright red, which still isn’t that visible because of the bruises. “What were you dreaming?” Teddy asks and raises his eyebrow, a smirk on his lips. 

“I…I can’t remember,” Billy answers embarrassed. 

“Well whatever it was it has to wait, we have to go to our room, it’s almost ten,” Teddy responds and stands up. They both climb down the tree and start walking back towards the building. While they are walking Billy’s eyes look down at Teddy’s hand a few times, remembering what Teddy’s hand felt like when Teddy took Billy’s earlier. The soft touch of his skin against Billy’s palm. The warmth of Teddy’s hand in Billy’s. 

“Are you okay?” Teddy asks while looking at Billy. “You look a bit phased out.” They enter the building and walk up the stairs. 

“Yeah, I was just thinking,” Billy replies and smiles. He blushes slightly and looks away. His eyes are fixed on the floor until they reach their room. He is scared that Teddy already thinks he is weird because of whatever he was dreaming so he didn’t want to seem any weirder, not looking anywhere but the floor probably didn’t do the trick though. 

*

Teddy and Billy have been sitting in their room on the floor, comic books and paper spread around them. “Wait? You would rather ship the Winter Soldier with Black Widow than Hawkeye with Black Widow?” Teddy asks with a raised eyebrow. 

“Hawkeye obviously belongs with Mockingbird,” Billy replies. “Natalia and Bucky are perfect for each other, they both spent time in the Red Room and he helped train her, they are both extremely multilingual, are both at the peak of human physic and are mastered assassins and experts in their line of work.” Teddy thinks for a bit before responding. 

“But what about Captain America? Bucky and Steve are really cute together,” Teddy counters. 

“That is very true but canonically speaking Natalia and Bucky are more likely to be a couple then Bucky and Steve and Clint is more likely to be with Bobbi,” Billy explains.

“Who gives a shit about canonically correct shipping? I for sure don’t,” Teddy responds, which makes Billy laugh. 

“Well if we go that way I definitely am a Stucky shipper. I do believe that Bobbi and Clint fit better together than Natalia and Clint though,” Billy says and smiles.

“I can live with that but now to the most important question. Robin and Superboy or Robin and Kid Flash?” Teddy asks in a serious tone. 

“Obviously Robin and Superboy,” Billy answers straight away. Teddy sighs in relief. 

“Thank god I don’t have to kill and bury you,” Teddy jokes and laughs softly. Billy laughs back at Teddy. Billy notices that Teddy’s eyes light up when he laughs, he gets this spark in his eyes which makes him 1000 times more attractive. Billy didn’t think that was possible but apparently it is though. For a short moment Billy wonders if he has this spark but doubts it straight away. 

Teddy looks into Billy’s eyes and Billy looks right back into Teddy’s amazing blue eyes. Their legs have been touching since they sat down and looked at their comic books together. Teddy leans forward a bit and Billy blushes slightly as he leans forward too. They close their eyes and then there is a knock on the door. Teddy moves back quickly and Billy jumps up. Billy walks to the door and opens it. Kate, Tommy, America, Laura, Warren and Noh-Varr are standing there. 

“Hey guys are you coming out with us? We were going to drink a little and play never have I ever or spin the bottle or something,” Kate asks and raises her eyebrow suggestively. 

“We gathered you two needed some fun,” Tommy adds. Billy smiles at Kate but glares slightly at Tommy before turning to Teddy, who is starting to pick up some of the comic books. 

“Yeah sure,” Teddy says, his cheeks are slightly red and he looks embarrassed. 

“You two weren’t doing anything were you?” Noh-Varr asks. Billy quickly shakes his head. 

“No, we were just reading,” Billy answers and smiles awkwardly. Billy looks at the clock on his bedside table; it is past twelve so the teacher won’t be coming around anymore. Teddy told Billy that security looks in every room after ten to check everybody is in their room and if they are they don’t come back. An old, dark skinned man with a weird eyepatch, Teddy said his name is Mr. Fury, already checked on Billy and Teddy earlier. “I’ll just grab my sweatshirt,” Billy says and walks to his closet, he shortly looks at Teddy, who looks slightly uncomfortable. 

*

“Okay your turn Altman,” Warren says and passes the bottle to Teddy. Teddy thinks for a moment and leans back against the wall of the gym the group had snuck into earlier. Kate, Tommy, and Noh-Varr were already lightly tipsy while the others, who apparently haven’t done as much as those three were still somewhat sober. 

“Never have I ever…kissed anybody,” Teddy reveals, this shocks Billy slightly since he thought that a hot guy like Teddy would have had a ton of kisses. Teddy passes the bottle to Tommy, who takes a big sip before passing the bottle to Billy. Billy directly passes it to Laura. Laura takes a small sip and passes it to America, who doesn’t take a sip and passes the bottle to Noh-Varr. Noh-Varr, who took his shirt of a few minutes ago, apparently he was feeling a little hot, takes a sip and gives the bottle to Kate. Kate takes a sip and passes Warren the bottle. He takes a sip and cringes at the taste of the fluid. So far Billy hasn’t had a single sip. 

“My turn,” Tommy almost shouts and grabs the bottle. “Never have I ever fantasised about a fictional character,” Tommy says and grins at Billy. Billy narrows his eyes at Tommy and takes the bottle. Billy lifts the bottle and feels the liquor enter his mouth. The taste isn’t as bad as he expected but it burns when it goes down his throat. Billy passes the bottle and everybody drinks except for Kate, Warren, and Laura. 

Billy is about to say something when Kate announces that she wants to play spin the bottle instead. She probably thinks that you’ll say something boring again Billy thinks to himself. He puts the lid on the bottle and passes it to Kate. Kate takes the bottle, puts it on the gym floor and spins it. Her spin was pretty hard so the bottle is spinning for quite a while. While the bottle is spinning Billy hopes that it doesn’t land on him but he hopes more that it doesn’t land on Teddy. The bottle finally stops, pointing at Noh-Varr. Kate doesn’t seem so excited but she crawls over to him and kisses him anyway. Warren spins next and has to kiss Laura, which Warren doesn’t seem to mind. Laura is a little sceptical at first but seems to loosen up when Warren’s lips touch hers. 

Teddy is next. He hesitates but then he spins the bottle. Billy’s heart beats extremely fast as the bottle spins and spins and spins. He closes his eyes for a moment and opens them again when Tommy starts to laugh. The bottle is pointing at Billy. Billy blushes and looks at Teddy with wide eyes. Teddy seems to be blushing too but it isn’t very visible since the gym is dark. 

“Go on then. You know the rules,” Kate says with a grin on her face. Teddy slowly crawls over to Billy keeping his eyes on the floor until he is only inches away from Billy. He lifts his head and looks into Billy’s eyes. Billy swallows hard, his heart beating faster and faster. Teddy’s hand cups his cheek softly as Teddy moves closer and closes his eyes. Billy closes his eyes and leans in too until their lips meet. 

Teddy’s lips are soft and warm against Billy’s but the kiss doesn’t last very long before Teddy pulls away again. Teddy smiles faintly at Billy, from this distance Billy can see that he is blushing a lot clearer, before moving back to where he was sitting. Wow is the only word going through Billy’s head at that moment. 

Billy snaps out of his thoughts again when Tommy spins the bottle. The bottle is pointing at Noh-Varr again. Tommy shrugs it off and kisses Noh-Varr without hesitation. This kiss lasts a lot longer than the others and ends with Tommy laughing, he is clearly drunk. America rolls her eyes at the two boys, who are now both laughing loudly. 

The gym door closes with a loud bang and the group look towards the door. A young woman with long red hair is standing at the entrance. “If you leave right now I will ignore that you are out of bed, in the gym and probably doing illegal stuff,” the woman says. Billy looks at the others, who are starting to stand up and get their stuff together. Noh-Varr and Tommy are a bit wobbly on their feet but the rest can still walk straight. They smile at the woman as they walk past her. Billy can now see the stern look on her face and her blue eyes. 

Billy starts walking towards the stairs when he notices that Teddy isn’t with him. He turns around and sees Teddy coming after him, the bottle in his hand. Teddy looks at Billy and they walk back to their dorm. While walking down the hallway Teddy nudges Billy softly with his elbow and smiles at him. Teddy holds up the bottle with a questioning look on his face. 

“Do you want to drink the rest of this?” Teddy asks. The bottle is still half full although Kate, Noh-Varr and Tommy drank a lot. 

“Sure,” Billy answers, not wanting to seem boring. When Billy and Teddy arrive in their room they sit down on the floor opposite of each other and Teddy opens the bottle. 

“Do you want to play a game or just drink and talk?” Teddy wants to know after taking a sip from the bottle. Billy shrugs slightly and leans back against his bed. He then takes the bottle from Teddy and takes a huge sip. The fluid burns his throat as he swallows and he cringe, which makes Teddy laugh slightly. “Just drink and talk I guess.” 

“Do you do this often?” Billy asks and takes another sip before passing the bottle back to Teddy. 

“What? Drinking or drinking with my new roommate?” Teddy replies. Teddy takes a small sip as he waits for an answer. 

“Getting your new roommate, who’s never had any contact with alcohol, to drink,” Billy responds. 

“Actually you’re the first,” Teddy says. “I don’t usually drink but there is a first time for everything,” Teddy adds and takes another small sip. He doesn’t cringe and seems used to the burning. 

“Well there have been tons of first times for me today,” Billy says and takes the bottle. He takes a small sip this time, which doesn’t burn as much. 

“Such as?” Teddy asks. 

“Well you kissed me that was a first. I drank alcohol for the first time. I have my first roommate. I found somebody who enjoys comic books as much as I do. People like me here, well except for Greg and his group of morons. I almost got into trouble for the first time,” Billy explains. 

“Your life up to now must have been boring,” Teddy responds and takes the bottle. Billy shrugs and looks at his hands. “But trust me now that you’re here you’ll have more first times,” Teddy adds and smiles. Billy smiles back. 

“Tell me a bit about yourself. I hardly know anything about you and you already kissed me,” Billy demands, trying to change the topic.

“Well there isn’t a lot to know. I’m just a geeky gay guy,” Teddy answers and shrugs.

“There is more you aren’t saying,” Billy says and leans forward, looking Teddy in the eyes before taking the bottle and drinking. 

“Well I play soccer, not because I like it but because I’m good at it. I would rather spend more time drawing,” Teddy starts. Billy looks up at the drawing on Teddy’s side of the room. “I want to be an artist but the school is more for sports,” Teddy adds and frowns. “I remember when I still lived with my mum. We used to spend hours just drawing and painting, she loved everything I drew and kept everything but I haven’t really been doing much drawing since I got here.” Teddy is getting very serious and he seems sad. 

“I love the drawing on your wall,” Billy says and smiles. “I wish I could draw like that.” That statement makes Teddy smile. Billy takes another sip before passing the bottle back to Teddy. “You could draw me some day,” Billy jokes and laughs softly. Teddy takes the bottle and smiles as Billy laughs.

“I could try but I doubt that I’d do you justice,” Teddy replies and takes a sip. The bottle is still filled about quarter of the way. Billy blushes at what Teddy says and looks away. “Anyways enough about me, what do you want to be when you are older?” Teddy asks. 

“A housewife,” Billy answers. Teddy raises his eyebrow and laughs softly. “I’m serious, I want kids and I want to stay at home and take care of them until my husband comes home from work. I want to cook for him and put the kids to bed with him. I want to read good night stories and kiss my kids good night. And then I want to sit down with my husband and watch some TV-shows before going to bed and making love with him. And that for the rest of my life until our kids move out and we are too old for all that,” Billy explains before laughing. “But that probably isn’t going to happen.” Billy takes a sip from the bottle, drinking almost half of what was left in the bottle. 

“Why do you say that?” Teddy responds. Teddy takes the bottle back and drinks the rest of the alcohol, this time he cringes too. 

“Well I have to find somebody to do that with me,” Billy starts. “And how likely is that?” Billy adds and laughs although he really doesn’t feel like laughing. 

“I’ll do it,” Teddy says and smiles. Billy looks up at Teddy and raises his eyebrows.

“You’re drunk and just saying that to make me feel better,” Billy replies and rolls his eyes while looking at his hands again. Teddy puts the now empty bottle on the floor and crawls over to Billy. 

“N…no, I’m not,” Teddy says, his voice starting to sound like Tommy’s in the gym. Teddy slowly lifts Billy’s head before kissing him. Billy kisses Teddy back and puts his hand to the back of Teddy’s head, feeling Teddy’s soft golden blond hair. Teddy deepens the kiss and moves Billy so that Billy is now lying on his back, Teddy on top of him. Billy can taste the liquor in Teddy’s mouth. 

“Stop,” Billy cuts Teddy’s kisses off. “You are drunk, I don’t want to make out with you just because you are drunk,” Billy adds and makes them sit up. Teddy looks confused. 

“Sorry, I thought you wanted to make out with me,” Teddy stands up and walks to his bed extremely wobbly. He takes his shoes off and sits down on his bed. “I…sorry,” Teddy says and he then takes his shirt and his trousers off. "Just forget I did anything." Billy tries not to look as Teddy lays down on top of his duvet in only his underwear.

Billy stands up now too and turns the light off, he doesn’t want Teddy to see the bruises but he also doesn’t want Teddy to see him topless since he isn’t as muscular or attractive as Teddy. Billy takes his top off and in the faint moon light that comes through the window he can see the bruises starting at his ribs and going over his stomach. He sighs soft and changes into his pyjamas before lying down under his duvet and looking over at Teddy. 

Teddy’s chest is rising and falling slowly and he looks like he is sleeping. The moonlight shines onto Teddy’s chest and Billy can see the shadows that Teddy’s abs make. Billy turns around and looks at the wall trying to calm his thoughts down. He drank a lot and the alcohol is starting to affect his thoughts more and more, every bad memory spiralling in front of his eyes until it gets too much and Billy starts to cry. He stays quiet while the tears roll down his checks. He learned how to cry without making any sounds from the countless times he had cried alone in his room. 

*

“Oooww my head hurts,” Teddy growls as he sits up. Billy slowly turns around; he hasn’t slept a lot his thoughts kept him up a long time. “When did we get back?” Teddy asks and stands up. He stretches before noticing that he is standing there only in his superman boxer briefs. Teddy quickly puts a pillow in front of his underwear, a blush spreading over his face. “I can’t remember coming back here,” Teddy adds and sits down again. 

“We got back shortly before two,” Billy replies. “What is the last thing you remember?” Billy asks somewhat hoping that Teddy forgot the kissing. 

“I remember getting caught by Mrs. Romanova but everything after that is just a blur,” Teddy explains. “Did I get undressed by myself?” Billy is somewhat disappointed that Teddy can’t remember but also relieved because that could have ended awkwardly. Billy nods and sits up. He feels a little dizzy but his head doesn’t have a headache and he doesn’t feel sick so he probably doesn’t have a hangover, his bruises hurt a lot though. 

“Nice underwear by the way,” Billy teases and smiles at Teddy. Teddy blushes again holding the pillow tighter to himself. Billy looks at his alarm; it is seven so breakfast is only for another half an hour. Billy rolls his eyes at Teddy’s sudden shyness after what he did last night just inches from where Billy was sitting right now. 

*

Breakfast was pretty uneventful although Kate and Noh-Varr looked pretty tired and hungover and Tommy didn’t actually come to breakfast, which surprised Teddy, Noh-Varr, Warren, and Eli. According to Noh-Varr Tommy was feeling like crap this morning and decided to sleep longer. 

After breakfast Teddy has soccer practice with Warren and Eli so Billy decides to look for Loki, Cassie, and the others from yesterday’s dinner. Before he looks for them he goes to the bathroom though. When he is done on the toilet Billy washes his hands and looks at his bruises in the mirror. The bruise Kessler gave him on his left eye is almost completely faded but there are new bruises on Billy’s jaw and his right eye. 

~Trigger Warning Self Harm~

When Billy turns around he sees blood flowing out from underneath one of the shower stall doors. Billy knocks softly on the door. “Shit,” somebody mumbles quietly, hardly audible over the running water. Billy recognises the voice but it sounds cracked so he isn’t sure who it is. 

“Are you okay?” Billy asks sounding a little like his mother. 

“Yeah, go away,” Billy knows who it is now. He bangs on the stall door again, this time more aggressively. 

“Open the door!” Billy almost shouts as he bangs harder. He stops shortly when he hears movement in the shower. The water stops and Billy can hear footsteps. The stall door unlocks and Billy pushes the door open. Tommy stands inside the stall, a towel wrapped around his waist and his eyebrow raised. 

“What is your problem?” Tommy asks, trying to sound annoyed but his voice is still cracked and Billy can see his puffed up eyes, probably from crying. Billy looks down at Tommy’s towel, which is stained slightly red at the bottom and red is starting to seep through at his hip. Billy doesn’t say anything and just hugs Tommy. Tommy is startled at first but hugs Billy back. The shoulder of Billy’s top is starting to get wet as Tommy cries silently, his body shaking slightly. 

“What did you do?” Billy wants to know when he lets go of Tommy. Tommy quickly wipes his face and tries to calm down. He is still shaking. “Tommy, please talk to me,” Billy adds when Tommy doesn’t answer. 

Tommy moves the towel slightly, revealing his right hip. Billy’s eyes widen when he sees a bunch of fresh cuts and some more cuts, which are already healing or starting to fade. Tommy puts the towel back over the cuts and sits down on the shower floor. Billy sits down next him, in a spot that isn’t wet, and puts his arm around Tommy. “Don’t tell anybody,” Tommy says after a while, his voice sounding less cracked. 

“I won’t but…why?” Billy asks. “Why did you do it? Why didn’t you talk to me or somebody?” Tommy sighs softly, looking down at his hands. Billy has never seen Tommy this vulnerable and hurt; he is usually the happy and excited guy who doesn’t give a fuck about anybody or anything. 

“Nobody has to know about my problems…I doubt anybody would even care,” Tommy replies. “I…I haven’t been feeling so great lately…stuff is getting a little too much for me and…and I can’t cope anymore…this is me trying to cope,” he continues. Billy feels his stomach tense as Tommy talks. “Everything is just piling up on me you know…school work is getting harder and harder, track and field training is every day and I’m just getting so exhausted…I hardly sleep anymore because I’m up all night thinking about how useless I am…and to top it all of I think…well I don’t know but I think I might not be straight, which is really hard for me to deal with…I don’t have a problem with it but I never thought that I wouldn’t be straight.” Billy is surprised when Tommy says this but tries not to let Tommy notice. “You know…I’m jealous of you…you have two amazing parents who love you, two small brothers who think you are great, you know who you are, you are smart and great in school…my parents hate me and don’t want to see me ever again, the only brother I have probably hates me because I’m always an arse to him, I can’t deal with who I am or who I might be, I’m too stupid for school…” Tommy is crying again. “I just can’t take anything anymore.”

Billy pulls Tommy closer and hugs him again. “I don’t hate you, I could never hate you even if you are annoying sometimes and act like a dick I still love you and care about you. You have friends who love and care about you. You are extremely smart and if you are passionate about something, you excel at it. I’m really nothing you should be jealous of, I mean look at me,” Billy responds and laughs softly as he points at his face. 

“I just…I always act like nothing gets to me and like I don’t care at all but lately…everything has been getting to me and I care way too fucking much,” Tommy explains and wipes his eyes again. “When did life get so fucking hard?” Tommy asks and Billy sighs. Billy somewhat knows how Tommy is feeling, with being bullied and getting beaten up just for being different and not actually being able to deal with being different himself, life hasn’t been the greatest of times for Billy. It now seems that life hasn’t been the greatest time for the twins. But to harm himself has never come to Billy’s mind; there probably was no need because everybody else harmed Billy for him. 

~End of Trigger Warning: no more mention of self-harm for now~

Although Billy understands Tommy, how he feels and why he feels like that he never actually considered that Tommy could be any different then what he shows others even though Billy has been somewhat strong towards the outside while struggling on the inside. Tommy was always the happy one of the two but now Billy sees that all the jokes and insults Tommy made were just to mask his own insecurities. 

“I’m sorry,” Billy says after a long time of silence. “I should have been there for you. I know we don’t always see eye to eye and we annoy the crap out of each other but I should have been there for you.” Tommy laughs when Billy says this. 

“Billy, you don’t have to apologise it isn’t like I should get the brother of the year award. I’m pretty shitty when it comes to being there for people…I mean seriously you trust me and are open about your sexuality and I just go and tell your roommate the first day you two meet, that is a really dick move,” Tommy replies, his voice returning to its usual tone. 

“Wait…you said you weren’t straight, right?” Billy asks. Tommy laughs and rolls his eyes.

“I said I think I might not be straight…you saw me kiss Noh yesterday…well I didn’t only kiss him because I was shitfaced…I don’t know but lately I’ve been feeling pulled into two directions. I love girls, I mean girls are fucking hot but…guys are, I don’t know, guys are hot too I guess,” Tommy tries to explain. 

“Yes they are,” Billy says and laughs. “So do you feel like you might be Bi?” Tommy plays with his hands before looking up at Billy.

“I really don’t know but I think it could be possible,” Tommy answers and shrugs. Billy smiles at Tommy before standing up. Tommy stands up too, holding the wet towel around his waist with one hand. 

“There is nothing wrong with not being straight. No matter how you chose to identify I will love you, don’t forget that,” Billy says before leaving the stall. “I’ll let you get changed.” Billy starts walking but he feels a hand on his shoulder. 

“Thank you…for listening and all,” Tommy thanks Billy and hugs him. “You dorkhead,” he adds and the two boys laugh. 

“Next time you’ll come talk to me okay?” Billy asks with a serious tone. Tommy nods before going back into the stall to get dressed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is shorter than usual so I will try to write a longer chapter next time I just thought the chapter should end where it ended. Also, this is more emotional then I planned at first and I'll try to get a happier tone next chapter.


	4. Carry on through the day and through the night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day goes on for Billy and his friends. Loki spends the day with Cassie. Billy and Teddy experience a bit more. The first day of school begins. Will these events be positive or will they push Billy down further?

Billy had been looking for Loki, Bobby and the others for quite some time but he couldn’t find them. When he saw Jonas, who came out of the lab covered in grease, Billy asked him if Jonas had seen the others. Jonas explained that Loki, Cassie, Kamala, Christian, and Bobby left over half an hour ago to go shopping at a mall a couple of miles away. 

*

“I dare you to try this on!” Cassie shouts to Loki across the shop, while holding up a bright pink cocktail dress, a wide grin on her face. Loki raises an eyebrow; he is standing in the male section looking at different tops. 

“Not my colour,” Loki jokes and continues to look through the pile in front of him. Cassie carries on searching, a few giggles leaving her mouth as she picks different dresses up. 

“How about this one?” Cassie asks her grin even wider and somewhat mischievous. She is holding a dark green satin dress with black lace detail and a black lace illusion. Loki rolls his eyes but has to smile. 

“What do I get if I put that on?” he responds with a smile. Cassie shrieks softly from excitement. Kamala, Bobby and Christian were in a different store looking at music. 

“You’ll get a high-five, the status of my new favourite guy and maybe a kiss,” Cassie answers and bats her eyes at Loki. Loki thinks for a short moment. He likes the dress, it is pretty and it matches his colour scheme but he is a guy and shouldn’t wear dresses but then again he shouldn’t be wearing eyeliner on his waterline and nail varnish on his fingers. After a few seconds pass Loki takes the dress and shakes Cassie’s hand. 

“Deal,” Loki says and walks towards the changing room. Cassie skips after him, her excitement extremely visible. Loki enters the cabin and Cassie follows him behind the curtain. He raises an eyebrow at her as she stands there waiting. “Cassie I have to get changed…that means I have to take my clothes off…in other words please leave,” Loki explains. Cassie’s eyes widen.

“Oh shit sorry,” She replies before leaving the cabin. 

“I feel ridiculous in this,” Loki announces after a few minutes. He is still behind the curtain looking at himself in the mirror. The dress fits nicely except for around the breast area, which Loki obviously lacks, and it probably isn’t as long on him as it should be. Loki moves his hips, making the lower part of the dress, starting from his waist, twirl around.

“Come on how bad can it be?” Cassie says. She has her mobile in her hand, the camera app ready. Loki slowly opens the curtain and looks up at Cassie before a bright flash comes from Cassie’s phone. Cassie’s jaw drops slightly. “Wow, this looks nice on you, although you need boobs,” Cassie adds and pokes Loki’s chest. 

“Hey! Delete that photo right now!” Loki almost shouts. Cassie puts her mobile away and grins widely. Loki narrows his eyes at her but decides to let her go for the moment. “Where is my payment?” 

“Here,” Cassie answers before high-fiveing Loki. Loki smiles as he high-fives her back. “You look surprisingly good in a dress, I’m impressed,” Cassie adds before leaning forward and pecking Loki on the cheek. “You deserve that kiss.” Loki rolls his eyes and blushes a little. 

“Can I take it off now?” He asks. Loki is starting to feel uncomfortable as other people walk past Cassie and him, glares moving over his body. 

“I’ll allow it but we should get you a pair of matching shoes and a wig,” Cassie replies with a wide grin. Loki raises his eyebrows at her before shaking his head and entering the cabin again.

“You wish. Besides I’m not going to buy this dress and I’m not going to do drag,” Loki explains as he changes. He hears a soft boo from Cassie and rolls his eyes. “Cassie, people think I’m weird enough even if I don’t wear female clothing,” he adds and leaves the cabin fully dressed again. “Fuck,” Loki mumbles as he sees Kamala, Christian and Bobby standing next to Cassie, looking at her phone. 

“Wow, you are a pretty chick,” Bobby says while laughing. Loki grabs the phone and deletes the picture instantly. He is clearly angry at Cassie. 

“I like the dress, it suits you,” Kamala adds with a smile. Loki gives Cassie her mobile back and leaves the store. Cassie runs after him.

“Hey, what is wrong?” Cassie asks as she tries to keep pace with Loki. Loki glares at her angrily and doesn’t answer. “Come on it was cool and they didn’t react badly.”

“Cassie! They laughed at me! Do you know how long it took me to get Christian and Bobby to like me? Do you know how hard it is to be the weirdo that nobody likes? No, you don’t! So yes you think it is okay to show others and to laugh about it but you didn’t even think that maybe I wouldn’t want them to see that picture!” Loki is almost shouting when he abruptly stops. “I’m sorry for not being happy about it but seriously I just thought that would be a small joke between us but you showed them!” 

“I…I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking,” Cassie apologises with a sad expression on her face. Loki sighs and sits down on a bench a few feet away from them. Cassie sits next to him. “Loki, I didn’t think you would mind and…and I thought the others wouldn’t react badly.”

“I know…I’m sorry for shouting it’s just that I don’t want to go back to being the loner nobody likes,” Loki explains and looks at Cassie. 

“Hey, Loki we won’t tell anybody, don’t worry,” Christian says as Kamala, Bobby and him walk up to Cassie and Loki. Loki looks up at them and smiles faintly. They all smile back, making Loki feel a lot better.

“Thank you,” Loki responds quietly. 

“My sister used to dress me and my nieces up all the time when I was younger,” Christian explains and laughs softly. Loki laughs too but he can’t get rid of the feeling that dressing up wasn’t all he was doing. 

*

“Why did we come here if everything we bought was frozen yogurt?” Bobby asks as they leave the mall and walk to Christian’s car. 

“I got a top,” Kamala replies with a smile.   
“I’ll rephrase. Why did we come here if everything we bought was frozen yogurt and a top?” Bobby says which makes the others laugh slightly. 

“Going to the mall is more about fun than about the shopping itself,” Cassie explains. “Besides we found out that Loki looks amazing in a dress,” Cassie adds and nudges Loki softly. Loki rolls his eyes and smiles. 

“I still don’t get it…must be a girl thing I guess,” Bobby replies. They reach Christian’s car and get in before leaving the parking lot and driving back to the institute.

*

“Hey guys, did you have fun?” Billy asks Loki and Cassie as they walk into the cafeteria during lunch. Kamala, Bobby and Christian were off exploring the huge boarding school. 

“Yeah we did,” Cassie answers and sits down next to Billy. Loki sits down opposite of Billy and smiles in agreement. “What were you doing?” 

“I had a talk with Tommy and then when Jonas told me you weren’t here I went to my room and read for a while,” Billy responds and takes a bite from an apple. 

“Where are Teddy and the other guys?” Loki asks while looking around. He seemed somewhat nervous or uncomfortable, which Billy guesses is because of how Eli reacted to Loki sitting with them yesterday. 

“They had soccer practise, then they had showers and now Teddy is doing some kind of art project for school and the other guys are playing X-Box or PlayStation or something in Tommy’s room,” Billy says with a smile. 

“Wait, so you’ve been all alone this whole time?” Cassie replies with a sad expression. “Why didn’t you say something? You could have come with us!”

“You were gone already and I don’t mind being alone, I’m used to it,” Billy replies and gives Cassie a faint smile. “Thanks though, I’ll keep it in mind for next time.” Cassie smiles back. “Did you find anything nice?”

“Well not directly…” Cassie starts and looks at Loki as if waiting for his approval to continue. 

“Cassie dared me to wear a dress…apparently I look stunning,” Loki continues for Cassie in a fake arrogant tone. He flips his slightly long hair back with his fingertips and looks at Billy. “I must say, looking so gorgeous isn’t easy for everybody but I manage just fine,” Loki adds before laughing. Cassie and Billy start to laugh too, their laughs almost echoing through the empty cafeteria. 

*

Cassie, Billy, and Loki spent a couple of hours in the cafeteria just talking about random stuff before Teddy came into the cafeteria, covered in paint. Billy was feeling fine while they were talking but he sometimes worried about talking too much so he stayed quiet most of the time. Teddy smiles at them when he walks over to them. 

“Hey, what are you doing?” Teddy asks and sits down next to Billy. Billy looks at Teddy noticing a small, black smudge just under Teddy’s eyes, which highlights the bright blue of his eyes. Loki grins as he sees Billy staring. 

“We were just talking about school tomorrow, it’ll be Billy and my first day of school here,” Cassie answers and smiles. “Any advice?” she adds and leans forward.

“Be ready to answer a lot of questions, most teachers here like to see how good their new students are so they’ll ask you almost everything,” Teddy replies. Billy notices more smudges, purple, red and some white splatters but they are all less noticeable compared to the black. 

“What a great way to encourage us,” Cassie mocks and laughs slightly. 

*

“Holy crap,” Billy exclaims with his mouth wide open. “You made this all by yourself?” he asks with a disbelieving tone in his voice. Teddy blushes as he put the painting he had been working on down. Billy pics it up and looks closer at the details of the painting. 

The background is black with a red, purple, and white galaxy theme. Right in the middle of the painting is a completely white figure, which looks like a boy who has his knees pulled to his chest and his head rested on his knees. The whole painting gets darker from the outside towards the middle until there is complete black around the white figure, acting as a strong contrast. Red galaxy, with white highlights, comes from one side and mixes into a dark reddish purple towards the middle of the painting and then turns purple, with white highlights, on the other side. 

“Yes, I painted it all by myself,” Teddy replies and laughs softly. “It isn’t that great though, I’ve done better,” Teddy adds with a modest smile. Billy rolls his eyes at that statement. He carefully puts the painting down and looks back at Teddy. “What?” Teddy asks and smiles.

“You shouldn’t be so modest, that painting is extremely amazing, much better than anything I’ve ever seen by anybody else and you are acting like it is nothing!” Billy answers, making Teddy blush again. 

“The others don’t usually care about my art, Tommy likes it but he only tells me when the others aren’t around. Sport is more important to them and they think that art only distracts me. My art teacher thinks the sport distracts me too much from my art. Everybody has different views of what I should do; either something different or just focus on one thing! I don’t know what to do, it’s like everybody just wants me to not be myself!” Teddy says in a frustrated tone. Billy frowns slightly before putting a hand onto Teddy’s shoulder and giving him a faint smile. “Sorry…I don’t know what just came over me.”

“Hey, it’s okay, you don’t have to change for anybody but yourself. You are a great guy and the only person you should try to please is yourself,” Billy responds before noticing how that might sound and blushing. Teddy laughs, a laugh that makes Billy feel safe and like everything might be alright even if it is just for that short moment. 

“Thanks, I’ll try to only please myself from now on,” Teddy answers with a small smirk, making Billy blush once again. Billy rolls his eyes and smiles while looking at the floor. Teddy has a way of making him feel like the world is spinning at ten times the normal speed but he was the only thing frozen in time. Billy’s heart beats faster as he looks back up at Teddy; Teddy is smiling. 

*

“So Loki about today…” Cassie starts with an apologetic look on her face. “I feel really bad, I just thought it was a joke and that you wouldn’t mind so much…I see how I shouldn’t have just assumed and that I shouldn’t have shown the others,” Cassie continues and sighs. 

“Stop apologizing…that was like the 15th time you’ve apologized now…I overreacted and I know you didn’t think anything bad of it so you don’t have to apologize anymore,” Loki replies with a laugh. Loki looks around the room him and Cassie are sitting in. Cassie hasn’t decorated her room side yet but Kamala has; her side of the room is covered in Captain Marvel posters and there are action figures and small figurines on shelves. The side Cassie is sitting on only has a bed, a few books and one small poster of the Ant-Man movie just above her headboard. “You and Kamala aren’t typical girls are you?” 

“Typical is boring and boring is stupid, why would we be boring if we can be different and interesting. I mean nowadays it is completely normal for teenage girls to love comic books, and action movies and it is normal for us to want to be like superheroes such as Ms. Marvel, Wonder Woman, the Wasp or Scarlet Witch even if that last one is debatable so I guess it isn’t so different or interesting to like this stuff,” Cassie responds with a small laugh. 

“I’d like to be like Scarlet Witch, she is amazing,” Loki says and smiles at Cassie. Cassie takes it as Loki only being a fan while Loki did not fully mean it in that way. He looks down at the floor and moves the hair that falls forward behind his ear. 

“You okay?” Cassie asks quite concerned. Loki doesn’t look up and hopes that Cassie doesn’t notice how bad he is feeling. Cassie moves down from her bed and sits right in front of Loki. “Hey, you can speak with me if you aren’t…I know we haven’t known each other for long but you seem cool so I want to help if you aren’t okay.” Loki smiles and looks up looking as if he hadn’t almost been crying. 

“Thanks, Cass but I’m fine,” Loki lies and gives Cassie a wide smile. Cassie raises an eyebrow at him and disbelief is spread across her face. 

“Loki, don’t lie to me,” Cassie says in a serious tone that makes Loki shiver. She actually cares about me Loki thinks to himself as he looks into Cassie’s face. 

“I’ve just been confused about a few things lately,” Loki confesses, which makes Cassie look even more concerned than before.

“I get if you don’t want to talk about it but it is clearly making you feel bad and talking can help an awful lot,” Cassie responds. Loki sighs and looks at the floor again, his hair falling into his face. 

“Okay…promise you can keep a secret…I feel like…”

*

Loki explained how he felt about his gender to Cassie. She didn’t fully understand it but was extremely supportive, which surprised Loki since they haven’t known each other for very long. It felt good for Loki to finally talk about it and Cassie not knowing him for a long time probably helped his honesty. Shortly after Loki explained his situation Kamala came into the room to get Loki and Cassie for dinner. 

After dinner, which was pretty eventless, Teddy and Billy went to their room. “So it’s your first day tomorrow. Are you nervous?” Teddy asks while looking up at the ceiling. His hand was dangling from the bed he was laying on almost touching the floor. 

“I little bit I guess. As long as I don’t have any classes with Greg I should be fine though,” Billy answers, meaning it completely serious but laughing to make it seem like joke. Billy was strongly hoping not to have any class with the larger and stronger boy, who most likely would beat the living hell out of Billy if they crossed paths again. 

“You’ll do fine, I believe in you,” Teddy quickly says, which keeps Billy from worrying too much. Teddy rolls onto his side and look over at Billy. Billy does the same and smiles at Teddy. Teddy sticks his tongue out at Billy before smiling. “Good night.”

“Good night,” Billy replies and turns off his bedside lamp. The room is dark except for the little light that comes through the window from the moon. Billy can just about see Teddy’s face. He smiles before closing his eyes and trying to sleep. 

Throughout the night Billy wakes up a few times; images of cuts on his brother’s hips and fist hitting into Billy’s face repeating over and over in his mind. Billy hears Greg’s voice calling him homophobic slurs and sees Greg kicking and punching him. He is covered in sweat every time he wakes up and his heart beats extremely fast. Billy is worried that he might wake up Teddy while he is asleep having nightmares so he quietly gets up and leaves the room. 

It is 4:30 in the morning and Billy is wandering around without a sense of direction but he doesn’t mind as long as he can get the images out of his head. Billy has had nights like this one before but he didn’t have the possibility of wandering around while living with his parents. There shouldn’t be anybody around at this time; at least that is what Billy thinks while walking down the stairs and towards the front door. 

“Who is there?” a voice asks from behind Billy. Billy flinches before turning around, clearly startled by the voice. When he turns around he notices a girl with red her walking towards him. “Oh good you’re a student,” the girls says with a smile. 

“Ehm…yeah, I’m Billy,” Billy responds and looks at the girl confused. 

“I’m Jean, where are you going?” Jean asks and Billy shrugs as an answer. He was just planning to wander outside, get some fresh air, clear his head a little. “I’m guessing you can’t sleep either?” 

“Yeah…first day tomorrow I’m a bit nervous,” Billy lies and smiles faintly. 

“Yeah, me too,” Jean replies and smiles back. “Do you mind if I join you?” she asks. 

“No not at all, you’ll probably help clear my head,” Billy answers and heads towards the door again. Him and Jean go outside and start walking towards the back of the building, towards the garden. They walk around the garden looking at the flowers and other plants until they find a small bench to sit on. 

“There is clearly something on your mind and it has nothing to do with nerves about tomorrow,” Jean says after a long period of silence. Billy really doesn’t want to tell his problems to a girl he only met less than five minutes ago. “Come on you can tell me,” Jean pushes. 

“I’d rather not talk about it right now, sorry,” Billy confesses. Jean narrows her eyes at him but turns to look away. 

“Okay, anyway I guess I’ll do the talking then…so there is this guy…” Jean starts but is interrupted by a voice behind her and Billy that is calling for Billy. They turn around and see Teddy with a flashlight, wearing only a tank top with a superman logo on it and batman boxers. He is walking towards them looking clearly relieved. 

“There you are, I woke up and didn’t see you and got extremely worried…shit Billy I thought you ran away or something, don’t do that again!” Teddy says and Billy notices how worried Teddy got. Billy doesn’t know if he should feel bad for making Teddy worry so much or if he should feel good because Teddy actually worries about him. Teddy blushes when he notices how attached he might sound even though he hasn’t known the other boy for a very long time; this makes Billy smile a little. “S…Sorry, was I interrupting you?” Teddy asks and rubs the back of his neck, he seems embarrassed.

“Yes, actually I…” Jean wants to speak but she is interrupted again, this time by Billy.

“No, its fine don’t worry,” Billy answers with a wide smile. Jean raises her eyebrow at Billy, confused for a moment before she understands what is going on. 

“Oh okaaaay, I think I’ll leave you two alone then,” Jean says and stands up to leave. She grins at Teddy and turns around to wink at Billy before leaving the two boys alone. Billy blushes when Jean winks at him, knowing that she knows what is going on right now. 

“Who was that?” Teddy asks once Jean is out of sight. Billy looks at Teddy, he must be freezing wearing that little amount of clothing yet he came out to look for Billy because he was scared for him. Here Teddy is worried about the boy who thought nobody would ever care or worry about him, the boy who thought the world was just there to knock him down but he is pulled back him by Teddy. Billy’s heart starts to beat faster again but this time not out of worry. 

“Who cares,” Billy declares and in a moment of overpowering emotion Billy jumps up and kisses Teddy. The taller boy is startled at first but kisses Billy back just seconds later. Billy wraps his arms around Teddy’s neck, pulling him closer while he feels Teddy’s hands move to his waist; holding him and, what feels like, protecting him. 

Their eyes shut and everything around them just blurs into nothingness as if only Billy and Teddy existed in this very moment. Billy could smell Teddy’s cologne and taste his toothpaste as they kiss and come closer, their legs now brushing against each other. Teddy smiled into the kiss and a small laugh left his lips before they continued their heavy kissing. 

His lips were rougher than the last time Billy had felt them, probably from the cold air. Even with the frosty air and wind hitting the two bodies, Billy has never felt more heated in his life. The only thing going through his mind was the feeling of Teddy’s lips and their heartbeats falling into sync as their breathing became unsteady and heavy, a few moans of ecstasy leaving Billy’s mouth as Teddy gently bit down on Billy’s bottom lip. 

Their lips parted after a few more seconds and the first words to come were from Teddy. “Wow…that…that was amazing,” Teddy says with his breath still unsteady. Billy’s hands were shaking when he took them from Teddy’s neck. “You are amazing,” Teddy adds with a wide smile. Billy blushes slightly and a shy smile form on his face. He feels Teddy’s lips against his forehead when he looks down at Teddy’s arms around Billy’s waist. Billy hasn’t felt this safe and at ease in years and he was certain that nothing could ruin this moment. For Billy this was heaven. 

*

Billy opened his eyes when the alarm on his bedside table went off. He wasn’t in his bead though; he was in Teddy’s bed with his head resting on Teddy’s chest. They were both clothed and hadn’t done anything except snuggle together in their sleep. Billy quickly gets up out of Teddy’s bed and turns his alarm off. He looked down and noticed that he wasn’t the only one up. Teddy rumbled and slowly sat up, which made Billy hurry under his own covers to cover anything that might embarrass him for the rest of his life. He smiled over at Teddy and Teddy smiled back. Teddy’s hair was a mess but Billy thought it looked hot, which really didn’t help with the thing under his blanket. “Good morning, handsome,” Billy says as Teddy climbs out of bed and stretches, his tank top moving up and revealing his v line. 

“Good morning. When did you go back into your bed?” Teddy asks, his voice still a little rough. 

“Ehm…” Billy thinks for a moment. “Just a few minutes ago when my alarm went off,” he responds and smiles awkwardly. His “problem” is slowly going away and he can now get out of bed without humiliation. 

Teddy and Billy get dressed and ready for school before walking down to the cafeteria for breakfast. “Do we tell the others?” Billy whispers as they walk towards the table where Warren, Eli, Lauren, Kate and America are sitting, the others must still be sleeping. 

“I don’t know…I think we should wait a bit,” Teddy replies. Billy feels a sudden tug in his stomach and his thoughts go spiralling. Maybe he doesn’t want to be with you, maybe he is ashamed of you, maybe you aren’t good enough for him, maybe this is nothing more than a onetime thing; these and more thoughts go through Billy’s mind as they sit down and start to eat. 

Billy doesn’t eat much at breakfast but the others don’t seem to notice since they are all talking about how this is the girls’, and Billy’s first day and what they plan to do after school. When they are all done Billy starts to walk to his first class, which is linguistics with Mrs. Romanova. Kate, Teddy, and Warren have linguistics with Mrs. Romanova too and when Billy gets to the classroom he notices that Loki is also in the class. Billy smiles at Loki before noticing who is sitting behind him. His smile quickly fades when he sees Greg talking with the two idiots that keep following him around. “Fuck,” Billy mumbles and quickly finds an unused seat towards the back, out of sight from Greg. 

Billy feels slightly relieved when Teddy sits next to him and gives him a reassuring smile. Then the teacher walks in and Billy instantly recognises her; she was the teacher that caught them in the gym when they were playing spin the bottle. Shit, he thinks to himself, this is going to be hell. His stomach tenses again and he starts to worry.

Halfway through the lesson Greg notices Billy and glares at him for a while until Teddy starts glaring at him, which for some reason intimidates Greg and makes him stop. Billy is extremely glad that Teddy is there with him because that means he won’t be beat up again unlike at his old school where getting only one beating a day was one of the good day. 

Teddy and Billy chat for a while, while the course is working or supposed to be working on an analysis of a text or poem or whatever was on the paper in front of Billy. Mrs. Romanova walks up to them and they instantly fall silent. She looks less intimidating in the light but her piercing blue eyes are still quite intimidating. “Mr. Altman I see you and Mr. Kaplan get along very well but I would prefer it if you could rather focus on the task I gave you,” Natalia says in a calm voice, which confused Billy for a moment. 

“Yes, sorry,” Teddy responds and smiles before looking down at his paper. Natalia turns to Billy with a smile. 

“I’m glad you feel comfortable here already and found a connection with other student but if you want to pass I suggest you do the tasks during the lesson and talk with your friends afterwards,” Mrs. Romanova suggests, again in a calm tone. Billy is clearly confused with what Mrs. Romanova is says since she is being quite nice but in a way also strict or at least somewhat stern, which Billy isn’t used to with teachers. 

“Of course, sorry Mrs. Romanova,” Billy quickly replies and starts to read.

*

The rest of the lesson goes pretty smoothly and Billy doesn’t know why he worried in the first place, well he does know but it seems silly now. His next class is R.E., which he has with Loki and Christian. Billy sits with the two boys and they chat for a while before the teacher, a tall muscular man with long blonde hair put back into a man bun, who is wearing a shirt that is probably too tight and a waist coat over it. Loki rolls his eyes when he sees who must be Mr. Odinson. “What is wrong?” Billy asks and raises his eyebrow at Loki’s expression. 

“He is so fucking arrogant and full of himself,” Loki explains before going on. “He is my adoptive brother and although we love each other like brothers do, he always thought that he was better than me in every way and this year I have to sit in front of him and listen to him talk for an hour and command me around.” Billy cringes at the thought of having to do the same with Tommy. 

“God that sucks,” Billy emphasises with Loki. Mr. Odinson turns out to be alright but he tries too hard to be funny and seem young, which Billy finds amusing and awkward. The lesson was pretty interesting, and the gossip and snarky comments from Loki about Mr. Odinson, whose first name turns out to be Thor, another amusing thing for Billy, is very entertaining. The time flies by and before Billy notices the lesson is already over. 

The rest of the day goes by pretty smoothly and not as bad as Billy had expected. Turns out he has P.E. with Mr. Maximoff, who to Billy’s surprise looks an awful lot like Tommy, and he already hates that course although Loki is pretty fun during the lessons. Billy really doesn’t understand how Loki is so unpopular with Teddy’s friends, he thinks Loki is humorous, and great to be around but then again he doesn’t really know what went on back when Loki was “a bad guy”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to focus a bit on Loki and his genderfluidity but I just ended up switching constantly between Billy and Loki.   
> There will be more and more detailed teacher-student interaction I wanted to keep it brief because of the next chapter (which hopefully won't take as long as this took [sorry])   
> Please give me feedback :)


	5. New Year Fireworks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billy and Teddy meet again after the holidays for the New Year's Eve Ball. Fireworks will be flying.

The week went on and so did Christmas and Hanukah, which the students spent at home with their family. Tommy came to stay with the Kaplan’s for Hanukah. Teddy and Billy exchanged phone numbers and were texting through the holidays, which Mrs. Kaplan thought was very odd since she wasn’t used to Billy being on the phone with friends. The students went back shortly before New Year’s Eve since there was a masquerade ball on New Year’s Eve. On the way back to the Bishop Institute Billy finds out that Kate and Tommy had started dating and were going to go to the ball together. Billy and Teddy planned on going to the ball together too but told the others it was just as friends, which they both knew wasn’t fully true. 

Cassie, Kamala, Bobby, Christian, and Loki formed a group and decided to go together since they didn’t have or didn’t want dates well that was what Loki had told Billy when he asked Billy to join them, during the holidays. 

When Billy got to the institute he hardly waited for his mother to say goodbye before he ran up to his room. Tommy laughed rolled his eyes as he followed Billy up the stairs, after thanking Mrs. Kaplan. The room was empty when Billy stormed into it, which strongly disappointed him. Tommy followed him into the room. “You know what? If I didn’t know it any better I would say you are really desperate to see Teddy again,” Tommy says and laughs again. Billy blushes slightly, hoping Tommy doesn’t notice. 

“Well I missed my friends…didn’t you miss your friends?” Billy tries to make it seem less obvious, probably failing. 

“Obviously I did but I don’t go storming off to meet them like you,” Tommy responds and grins slightly. “Anyway, I’ll let you be before Teddy gets here and you jump him.” Tommy leaves the room, closing to door behind him. Billy sighs and opens his bag while waiting; he gets the black tuxedo, his dark red bowtie, and the red devil mask, which covers most of Billy’s face, out of the bag and puts them into his closet, ready for the next day. 

After about half an hour Teddy comes into the room and before he can put his bags down Billy, like Tommy had said, jumps onto Teddy and hugs him. “God I missed you!” Billy exclaims, his arms wrapped around Teddy’s neck and his head rested on his chest. Teddy rests his head on Billy’s and wraps his arms around him. 

“I missed you more,” Teddy says and kisses the top of Billy’s head before letting go. Billy moves back, his face has gone bright red. They haven’t seen each other for a week and a bit but for Billy it seemed like forever. He didn’t know that he could miss somebody so much until he met Teddy. 

The two boys spend the next hour or so talking about the holidays, explaining things they already talked about over the mobile but they both don’t seem to be bothered by that. They only stop talking when somebody knocks on the door and Cassie and Loki come into the room both smiling widely. “Hey guys, we missed you two,” Cassie says and goes to give Billy a hug. They briefly hug and Cassie then hugs Teddy. Loki goes to shake Billy’s hand, which Billy thinks is awkward so he hugs him. Teddy claps Loki on the back knowing with his friends not liking Loki them hugging would be more than awkward. 

“How were your holidays?” Teddy asks the other two before sitting down on his bed. The four of them chatted for about twenty minutes before heading for the cafeteria to meet up with the others and have dinner. They first go to Kamala, who is sitting with Bobby, Christian and Jonas but Teddy goes to Eli, Warren and those guys when they come into the cafeteria. Billy is a bit disappointed about that; he gets along with Warren, Noh-Varr, Eli, Kate, America and Lauren but he gets along better with Bobby, Christian, Cassie, Kamala and Loki, which is impractical since Teddy gets along with the others more, or at least he spends more time with them. But then again Billy’s friend circle should be set around who Teddy likes most or doesn’t like. 

Billy is a little confused by the presence on Jonas since he thought Jonas was better friends with the other group but he seems to be quite close with Cassie. They are clearly trying not to make it obvious, leaving a large gap between them and looking away every time their eyes meet but they definitely like each other more than just a bit, this makes Billy grin a little. Cassie had been teasing him about Teddy a lot so now it was his turn to do the same to her. 

*

After dinner the group splits up; Jonas, Bobby and Christian head for Bobby’s room to play some videogames and “chat about chicks”, how Bobby put it, Loki, Kamala and Cassie head for Cassie’s and Kamala’s room to get the last things ready for the ball tomorrow and Billy is left so he goes over to the other group to greet them. 

There isn’t a lot of greeting since Kate and Tommy are making out, Warren and Lauren are lost in each other’s words and eyes, Noh-Varr is talking to Eli while staring at Tommy every now and then and Teddy is talking to America and a guy Billy can’t remember meeting. Billy sits down next to Teddy and introduces himself to the dark skinned guy on the other side of Teddy. “Hey, I’m Billy; I don’t think we’ve met before.”

“Yeah I know who you are, I’m David, I don’t go to school here I’m a teacher’s assistant,” David responds. He doesn’t look much older than Billy and he looks far too young to be a teacher’s assistant but he also seems quite mature. Billy doesn’t like the way he is talking with Teddy though, he seems too close and too…Billy doesn’t know too what but he feels like there is defiantly something too much about the whole situation. He tries to ignore that feeling and stays polite throughout the conversation. 

After about an hour Tommy, Kate, Teddy, David, Billy and America are left but Tommy and Kate leave shortly after the other two left. “I better go after them before that chica gets into any trouble,” America jokes and walks after Tommy and Kate. “Wait up princess,” Billy hears her shout as she leaves the dining hall. David, Teddy and Billy are left there and an awkward silence creeps over them. 

“Billy and I should get going too, I’m really tired and Billy promised he’d help me with me costume for the ball before we go to bed,” Teddy says and smiles at Billy. Billy hadn’t promised Teddy anything and said they wouldn’t show each other their costumes. Billy raises an eyebrow at Teddy. “Last week, don’t you remember,” Teddy responds to Billy’s expression before biting his lip and smiling at Billy. 

“Ooooooh yeah,” Billy exclaims now getting that Teddy just wanted to be alone with Billy, a feeling that is still pretty new for Billy. “Now I remember yes, let’s go,” Billy adds and smiles widely. “It was nice to meet you David.”

“Likewise, I’ll see you tomorrow,” David replies but his facial expression doesn’t seem to show that.

Billy and Teddy quickly hurry back to their room. Billy enters the room first but is quickly pulled around by Teddy, who shuts the door behind them. Teddy takes Billy’s face into his hands and slowly leans forward. They both tilt their heads, moving closer and closer together. Billy smiles shuts his eyes just before their lips meet. The kiss is brief but Billy feels every single part of his body tingle because of it. “I’ve been waiting to do that all day,” Teddy confesses when they part. 

“I’m glad I’m not the only one,” Billy says and laughs softly. Teddy laughs too; Billy missed the kissing but he thinks he missed Teddy’s warm laughter even more. Billy slowly pushes Teddy against the door before pulling his head towards his. Their lips meet again. Teddy parts his lips and Billy follows his lead. Their tongues touch softly and they start to play around with their tongues. This is the first time they’ve done this and Billy’s heart start beating faster from excitement. He puts his hand on the back of Teddy’s head and starts to playfully move his fingers through Teddy’s hair while pulling him closer. Billy feels Teddy’s tongue brush against his and he feels jolts go through his body and into his crotch. He moans softly into the kiss, which makes Teddy smile for a moment. Teddy places one hand on the small of Billy’s back and the other onto his cheek before continuing the kiss. Billy lightly tugs at Teddy’s bottom lip with his teeth, which earns him a moan from Teddy. He feels great, being able to make somebody moan and get excited. 

They part for a moment to catch their breath, not losing eye contact for a second. “I…I love…I love kissing you,” Billy says with his shaky breathing. He was going to say something different but couldn’t quite build up the courage to do so. 

“I love you too,” Teddy confesses. He is about to kiss Billy again when he notices what he just did. His eyes widen and his face goes bright red just like Billy’s as they look into each other’s faces. Billy starts to smile widely feeling a thousand emotions run through his body at the same time. “Shit I thought you said…” Teddy is clearly embarrassed but Billy has never felt better in his life. 

“Shut up and kiss me,” Billy responds and pulls Teddy closer. He didn’t think kissing Teddy could get any better but after hearing those words kissing has become so much more amazing. “I love you too, you dork,” Billy explains and smiles. Teddy seems to be instantly relieved, a smile spreading across his face. He picks Billy up pecking his lips multiple times as he walks towards the beds. Billy puts his feet on the ground again and wraps his arms around Teddy’s torso. “Thank you,” Billy mumbles almost inaudible for Teddy. Teddy isn’t sure what Billy is thanking him for but instead of arguing with him he kisses him on the top of the head.

*

“Okay so you think they won’t notice?” Loki asks as she steps out of the closet in Cassie’s room. Cassie’s and Kamala’s jaws drop when they see Loki. She is wearing a black wavy wig that ends just below the shoulder, a lot of make-up, a pair of black stilettos that tie at the front and a black lace dress that ends above the knee. The lace covers Loki’s shoulders and collar bones and the dress starts at the chest, which Loki stuffed out a bit. It is tight at the waist and falls out after that. Loki looks almost unrecognisable. “What?” Loki demands when the two other girls stare without a single word. 

“You look amazing!” Cassie screeches out of excitement and start jumping up and down. 

“Are you sure you are Loki and not some girl?” Kamala asks still shocked by the transformation. “That is impressive,” Kamala adds before poking Loki’s chest, like Cassie had done in the shop only this time there is something underneath the dress. 

“I can’t wait for the others to see you!” Cassie can hardly contain her excitement. Loki smiles at the two other girls as she twirls the bottom of the dress a little. “You should do this more often!” Cassie says, for her it is probably more of a dress up than an expressing how you feel inside, like it is for Loki. Over the past few weeks Loki has started to come to terms with the fact that sometimes he feels like a she and sometimes she feels like a he. He hasn’t told a lot of people yet; Billy, Cassie and Kamala know so far but he is planning to tell his family soon. 

Loki steps forward, she is surprisingly steady on the heels, and hugs the two girls, although she is now over a foot taller than them. “You two are amazing thank you,” Loki almost tears up but tries to keep it together because doing the make-up took ages. 

The two other girls were already dressed in their dresses when Loki left the closet. Cassie is wearing a red knee long dress with a square neckline, and free shoulders and a pair of red flats; she tried wearing heels but almost broke an ankle trying to walk in them. Kamala is wearing a navy dress that hits the floor with elbow long sleeves, black tights and a pair of black sandals with a small heel. They leave the room together but before doing that they put their masks on; Kamala and Cassie have plain black domino masks while Loki has a black mask with small horns that go up through her hair. 

The masquerade ball is taking place in the ballroom of the school, which up until now hasn’t found any use except as a place for the stoners to gather. On the way to the ballroom Loki, Cassie and Kamala meet up with Christian and Bobby, who don’t recognise Loki. They are both just wearing a black tuxedo and a decorative mask each. 

“Wasn’t Loki going to go with us?” Bobby asks, sounding somewhat disappointed. 

“Yeah, he is feeling ill though but L…Lauren is joining us instead,” Cassie replies, quickly making up a name for Loki. Loki smiles at the two boys before winking at Bobby. She feels a lot more confidence dresses how she feels, sometimes, that is in her “boy from” and sometimes that is in 10 inch heels and a dress that is probably too short. 

The five of them enter the ballroom together and head for one of the tables. 

*

“Okay I’ll get changed in Tommy’s room and then we’ll meet in the ballroom, if you can find me before the clock strikes twelve you might get a little something,” Teddy says as he takes the bag with his costume and heads for the door. 

“Don’t make it too hard though,” Billy calls after him before the door closes. Billy puts on the tuxedo he had hung in his closet the day before. The mask fits perfectly and the red devil horns stand out against his dark hair. When Billy is fully dressed he makes his way towards the ballroom. He knows that Teddy will be dressed as an angel to contrast Billy’s costume or at least that was what the two boys had planned. 

A lot of students stayed home for New Year’s Eve but the ballroom is still filled with a lot of people in masks and costumes. To Billy’s shock there are about 15 angels at the masquerade ball. Billy walks into the room and heads towards the first people he sees, which are Cassie, Kamala, and a tall girl with long dark hair. “Hey, you guys look amazing,” Billy says when he gets to them. 

“Thank you,” Loki replies to the compliment. Billy is surprised when the dark haired girl’s voice is quite low and sounds familiar. Loki grins at Billy trying not to laugh. Billy’s eyes widen when he notices who was standing in front of him, the grin clearly giving it away. 

“Holy shit, Loki!” Billy exclaims. “That is impressive.” Billy touches Loki’s hair and runs his fingers through it. “You look stunning,” Billy adds with a wide smile. Loki blushes and looks away while his three friends smile at him. 

“It did take him over two hours to look like that though,” Cassie explains and laughs softly. 

“Her,” Loki mumbles almost inaudible. Cassie apologizes, feeling extremely bad, when she notices what she had said, she isn’t completely used to the changing pronouns and when to use which ones but she does try to get it right. 

“Have you seen Teddy?” Billy asks which gets him a suggestive look from Cassie and a grin from Loki, Kamala on the other hand is respecting people’s privacy, except for Cassie’s when it comes to Jonas of course. 

“I saw a few angels around but I didn’t recognise Teddy yet,” Loki answers, her grin still wide on her face. “Didn’t he tell you where he went?” Billy shakes his head and looks around. It is only ten pm so he has more than enough time to get to Teddy before midnight but he wants to find Teddy sooner rather than later. 

An angel with blonde hair walks past Billy and Billy stops him to check but when he turns around Billy notices that it is Warren. “Hey,” Warren says, not knowing who was in front of him.

“Hey, have you seen Teddy?” Billy asks Warren before Laura comes and takes Warren’s arm. She glares at Billy shortly before pulling Warren with her. 

“He was talking with America earlier,” Warren answers before leaving with Laura onto the dancefloor. Billy looks around the ballroom, obviously telling him that Teddy had been with America didn’t help since everybody was wearing masks and Billy had no clue where America was but he wouldn’t let that keep him from finding Teddy. 

“I’m going to say hi to the others,” Billy tells Loki, Cassie and Kamala before walking around the room in search of an angel. 

After what seems like ages Billy has talked to almost every single angel in the ballroom but he hasn’t found Teddy yet. Billy starts to worry that Teddy was playing a joke on him and he didn’t actually want Billy to find him or didn’t even want to be with Billy, which is why Teddy is keeping their…whatever you could call their relationship…a secret. The thoughts start to spiral through his head again knocking Billy’s mood lower and lower. Billy leaves the ballroom to get away from the people before he has a panic attack in front of about half the school. 

“Hey, are you okay?” a familiar voice asks as Billy is sitting in a corner, his head on his knees. Billy looks up to see Mrs. Maximoff.

“Yeah…well no not really,” Billy admits and sighs. Mrs. Maximoff sits down next to Billy and puts her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry I bet you have better things to do on New Year’s Eve than to consult overthinking students,” Billy apologizes and looks at Mrs. Maximoff.

“No not really…sad I know but teaching is literally all I do,” Mrs. Maximoff says with a laugh. Billy smiles faintly before looking back at the floor. “What is wrong, hun?” 

“Nothing really, I’m just overthinking ever little detail of my life and my relationship with this guy…if I can even call it relationship, I’m making myself doubt every decision I’ve ever made, and I’m pitying myself…other than that I’m just amazing,” Billy sighs again. Although it feels good to talk about it Billy doubts that telling a teacher would be a great idea. “Sorry, Mrs. Maximoff.”

“Call me Wanda, you don’t have to apologize. I used to do the same when I was your age. You don’t have to doubt yourself though; you are a young, creative and great boy who will most likely still have a lot ahead of himself,” Wanda replies and gives Billy a small smile. “Now why don’t you tell me why you’re so upset?”

“It’s stupid really if I think about it…obviously tonight is the ball and I was supposed to find one of my friends…well more than just a friend I guess…at the ball but I’ve been looking for ages and…I don’t know I just started thinking that maybe he didn’t want me to find him,” Billy explains. Wanda frowns slightly at him before standing up and holding her hand out to help Billy up. 

“You shouldn’t think like that, I bet your friend is just very good at hiding that’s all,” Wanda responds while helping Billy and up. “Is there any special place you two have?” Wanda asks to help Billy get a few ideas where Teddy might be. Suddenly Billy gets and idea and his face lights up with excitement. 

“Yes! Yes there is,” Billy exclaims before hugging Wanda very shortly. “Thank you,” Billy says with an awkward smile after hugging Wanda. Wanda smiles at Billy and softly taps his nose. 

“Pleasure, now go find your guy,” Wanda tells Billy. Billy smiles at Wands before starting to walk towards the gym, the place where Teddy and Billy had kissed for the first time, even if it was just because of spin the bottle. Billy slowly opens the gym door, his hear beating fast out of fear that Teddy might not be there and out of excitement that Teddy might be there. His first thought was the bench where they shared their first kiss that didn’t involve alcohol but then he thought back to the night he had confessed his hopes for the future to Teddy, the first person to ever hear this. Although Teddy said he couldn’t remember Billy still hoped that he did. 

When Billy enters the gym he sees a person with a white pair of trousers, two huge wings on his back, a white mask attached to a halo and nothing else. Billy recognised the exposed torso and knows it is Teddy straight away. Teddy is smiling as he looks up from his watch. “You found me and there is another 15 minutes to go until midnight,” Teddy says and very slowly walks closer to Billy. “I guess you’ve earned yourself something,” he adds and bites his bottom lip, which makes a wave of emotions go through Billy’s body. Billy blushes slightly as Teddy comes closer and closer, his nude upper half becoming more visible by the second. 

“Wh…What did I earn?” Billy stutters, trying to keep his eyes on Teddy’s face but failing. Teddy takes Billy’s hand with both of his and slowly puts it on his chest. Billy can feel Teddy’s strong heartbeat a lot steadier than Billy’s at that very moment. 

“Whatever you want,” Teddy whispers and slowly moves Billy’s hand down over the abs on his torso. Billy’s fingers softly brush over Teddy’s smooth skin and firm abs, the heat of Teddy’s body quickly transfers onto Billy’s fingers and moves through his body. Teddy bites his lower lip as Billy’s finger tips stop just above the waistband of his trousers. Billy’s eyes move over Teddy’s naked upper body before looking into Teddy’s eyes. 

“I want to kiss you now,” Billy whispers back before leaning forwards, his hand pulling Teddy closer by his waistband. Teddy smiles softly and leans forward too. Their lips meet, jolts of passion move through their lips pulling them closer to each other. Billy pulls the devil mask off his face while kissing Teddy more passionately. “I love you,” Billy mumbles into the kiss. 

Teddy pulls back slowly and looks into Billy’s eyes and slowly shakes his head. “How did I deserve you?” Teddy asks and takes off his mask too. Billy blushes, his eyes widening out of surprise. “Don’t look so surprised,” Teddy laughs softly. He kisses Billy before continuing to talk. “You are really amazing…” Teddy says while unbuttoning Billy’s tux. “You are dorky in the most adorable way…” Teddy pulls the jacket off and drops it to the floor. “You are hot…” He starts to unbutton Billy’s shirt, tracing the skin underneath with his fingertips. A shudder goes through Billy’s body and straight towards his crotch. He blushes brighter than before and looks into Teddy’s eyes, which are fixated on his already. “You are the only person who understands me…” Billy’s shirt now also falls to the floor and Teddy’s hands are on the small of Billy’s back. “You are the boy that I love more than anything else…” Teddy pulls Billy to him, his lips only inches away from Billy’s, hovering and longing for touch. Billy’s now also naked torso is pulled against Teddy’s, the warmth of Teddy’s body slowly driving Billy crazy. Their hearts beat faster and faster as they look into each other’s eyes, lips almost touching. 

“FIVE…” They hear people shout from the ballroom.   
“FOUR…” Billy wraps his arms around Teddy’s neck, his fingers playing with Teddy’s hair.   
“THREE…” Teddy’s hands move down and into the back pockets of Billy’s trousers, cupping his ass softly.   
“TWO…” They move closer together, Billy’s leg now between Teddy’s, and close their eyes.   
“ONE…” Their lips meet and everything Billy feels and sees are fireworks bursting into neon coloured lights, and pure passion and emotion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again a shorter chapter but I liked how it ende so the rest will be in the next chapter. I was going to post this before the new year began but I didn't finish quick enough.


	6. A night of many stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A night can hold many stories here are just a few.   
> Briefly: Loki is experiencing what it is to have friends, Tommy and Noh-Varr are experiencing a few struggles, Kate and America are experiencing fun and embarassment, Teddy and Billy are experiencing a lot.

*15 minutes before midnight*

“Where is Billy? I thought he was only saying hi to the others and then coming back,” Christian asks before sipping from the punch in his hand. He cringes a bit at the taste; somebody clearly spiked the punch. 

“I’m guessing he found Teddy and they ran off together,” Cassie answers and smiles widely. Kamala rolls her eyes at Cassie’s constant remarks about Teddy and Billy. 

“Or he is getting Jonas for you,” Kamala says and raises an eyebrow at Cassie, smirking widely. Cassie in return blushes and turns away. Loki, who hasn’t said a word since Billy left so that Bobby and Christian wouldn’t recognise or are less likely to recognise her, has to laugh at that comment. Cassie glares at Loki before she goes to get punch.

“I think she really likes him,” Loki whispers to Kamala, trying to make her voice sound higher. 

“Yeah she does but she doesn’t want to admit it to herself let alone us,” Kamala responds and smiles. Bobby comes over to Loki and Kamala ending their conversation straight away. He is a bit wobbly on his feet; he obviously drank a bit too much of the spiked punch. 

“God somebody put vodka in the drinks,” Bobby mumbles awkwardly. “My bet is Tommy,” he adds and leans against Loki, so doesn’t fall over. Loki has to smile at that guess because it is so obvious that it was Tommy. Kamala had seen him do it earlier on and told Cassie and Loki about it so Loki and Kamala avoided the punchbowl for the whole night while Cassie, to their surprise, had a few cups of it. Loki feels a little pulled down by Bobby’s weight and the shoes are starting to hurt her feet so she decides to take them off. She is still slightly taller than Bobby but not as extreme as with the shoes. Bobby smiles at Loki.

“Guys, there’s only a few seconds left of this year,” Christian says in an excited tone. There is a huge countdown projected against one of the walls and the group watches as the numbers go down from ten. 

“FIVE…” the crowd cheers and gets their drinks ready to celebrate.  
“FOUR…” Loki looks around the room for Cassie.  
“THREE…” she spots her standing with Jonas, which makes her grin slightly.  
“TWO…” the cheering is getting louder.   
“ONE…” everybody goes into hugs, kisses and loud cheers as fireworks are projected against the wall.

Loki smiles at Kamala and gives her a huge hug. When she turns she can see Cassie kissing Jonas, who looks a little overwhelmed. Christian gives Kamala a small peck on the cheek as a New Year’s kiss. Christian and Loki share a short hug. Loki turns to Bobby to give him a hug but is met with his lips on hers. She is surprised at first but returns the kiss. 

“Ehm…Happy New Year,” Loki mumbles after the very brief kiss. “Bobby…you know that I’m Loki right?” she adds, only audible for Bobby, feeling somewhat scared that Bobby might freak out and cause a scene in front of half the school. 

“Yes but shhhh, I drunk and not recognise as far as others are concerned,” Bobby whispers back and smiles faintly. Kamala and Christian look at the two with shock. 

“Bobby…what the hell dude?” Christian asks. Kamala’s shock quickly turns into laughter. “You can’t just kiss somebody like that!”

“What? Shes pretty…why wouldn I kiss him…her,” Bobby replies, speaking seems to get harder and harder for him. Christian raises his eyebrow at Bobby, clearly confused if this is a joke or not. 

“Does he know that that is Loki dressed up?” Christian whispers to Kamala, who is still giggling. 

“I don’t think he noticed but don’t tell him,” Kamala responds. Christian giggles at the thought of Bobby kissing a boy and not knowing it. Cassie comes back to the group and looks confused why two people of the group are laughing, one looks like he is seconds from barfing, and the last one was blushing through the thick layer of makeup. 

Loki’s lipstick is slightly smudged and Bobby is wearing the same colour. Cassie puts one and the other together and starts to laugh like Kamala did earlier. “You two kissed!” she almost shouts, making other people around them turn around and stare for a short moment. Loki narrows her eyes at Cassie and tells her to shush. “Oh this is priceless!” Cassie continues with a wide grin on her face. “Wait until Billy hears from this.” 

“Cassie, shut up…I saw you and Jonas so you better be careful what you say,” Loki says after stepping closer to Cassie, so Kamala wouldn’t hear. She would never let that go if she found out. 

“You wouldn’t dare,” Cassie replies, still smiling. Loki raises an eyebrow and smiles at her. Cassie’s smile slowly fades now and she blushes. 

*

The party goes on for another five hours but Kamala and Cassie leave around half past one. Christian wanted to leave at two but Bobby didn’t so Loki said that he would take care of Bobby and make sure he’ll get to his room safely. That was over an hour ago. Bobby is now somewhat sober again although he can’t walk straight and still has a hard time speaking. Loki is sitting with him at a table giving him water and feeding him small bits here and there to sober him up. The ballroom is a lot emptier and there are only a few people left dancing and some people still chatting at the tables and in corners. 

“So…sorry,” Bobby mumbles after taking a sip of water.

“Why are you apologizing?” Loki asks with a raised eyebrow. Bobby blushes slightly and looks at the plate in front of him. 

“Kissing you…please don’t tell the others I know,” Bobby answers and looks up at Loki again, a look of fear and embarrassment on his face. “They sh…shouldn’t know I’m gay,” he adds and looks away. Loki’s eyes widen in surprise. He wasn’t sure if Bobby is telling him this because he is drunk or tipsy or if he actually wanted Loki to know. Loki is starting to feel uncomfortable, partially because Bobby just outed himself to Loki and partially because his gender had been fluctuating for the last couple of hours. 

“Don’t worry I won’t tell anybody,” Loki replies and smiles at Bobby. “Thank you…for trusting me enough to tell me that,” Loki says, meaning every word. He wasn’t used to having friends let alone friends that trust him with things that are so personal and in a way it made him feel better about himself to know that people see him as a trustworthy person. 

Bobby smiles at Loki. They took their masks off quite a while ago and the masks are now lying on the table. Loki stands up and holds his hand out to Bobby. Bobby hesitates but takes it after a few seconds. “What do you want to do?” Bobby asks as Loki pulls his towards the dancefloor. The DJ has been playing slow songs for the last hour or so. 

“I want to dance with you,” Loki replies and stops on the dancefloor. His shoes are still off so he is only a bit taller than Bobby, who also took off his tight leather shoes, but Loki doubts anybody would wonder why a person with a dress and a wig is taller than Bobby. Loki wraps his arms around Bobby’s waist, who wrapped his arms around Loki’s neck. Loki can’t really dance and Bobby is still now fully sober so they just sway to the music, smiling at each other. 

“Can I ask you something?” Bobby says after a minute or two. Loki nods and smiles although that question alone makes him nervous. “Why are you dressed like this?” Loki swallows hard and his heart starts to beat faster. 

“I…well…so…” Loki doesn’t know where to start with the explaining or what exactly he should explain. He has been dreading that question ever since the kiss. “I’m not always male…well technically I am always male I just don’t feel like a boy all the time, I sometimes feel more like a girl, hence the dress…so technically you could say that I’m genderfluid, I don’t fully understand it myself and I’ll be okay if you don’t understand it at all I know it is a little hard to get and not everybody is so open minded…I’m going to shut up now,” Loki explains and rambles. He feels his face getting hotter and his heart beating faster. 

“So if I like like you does that make me bisexual?” Bobby asks. Loki didn’t expect a response like that let alone that question. 

“I don’t know…I guess you are technically still gay since you only know my guy from, so to speak, but I’m not sure,” Loki responds. “But…what exactly do you mean by like like me?”

“Ehm…nothing in particular just you know…you are pretty cool and I wouldn’t mind being closer to you…in general that is, not right now,” Bobby explains. They stopped dancing a while ago but their arms are still wrapped around each other. Loki blushes and smiles softly. “Oh god just ignore what I just said…sorry,” Bobby adds and looks away, letting go of Loki. Loki moves back and looks at Bobby.

“I like you too,” Loki says before Bobby feels too awkward. Bobby looks back at Loki with raised eyebrows as to say “really?” and starts to smile again. 

“Cool,” Bobby replies with a wide smile. Loki has to laugh at that reply and rolls his eyes slightly. 

*

“Shhh be quiet Christian is sleeping,” Loki says as he opens the door to Bobby’s room. Bobby is behind him laughing about two people they just walked in on when Bobby told Loki the wrong door number. Christian is fast asleep on his bed when they enter the room. 

“You didn’t have to take me back here,” Bobby tells Loki, which makes Loki laugh. 

“You just walked in on a couple screwing now shush or you’ll wake Christian,” Loki whispers. He waits until Bobby is in bed before heading back to the door. “Good night, Bobby.”

“Good night,” Bobby replies as Loki leaves the room, closing the door behind him. Loki shakes his head and laughs as he walks down the hallway, his heels and the mask in his hand. 

“Oi!” Loki hears from behind him, startling him. He turns around and sees Greg, who most likely was the guy Bobby and Loki just walked in on. “Are you the girl that just walked in on me!?” Greg sounds extremely angry and Loki would love to run away straight away but Greg would catch him. 

“Yes, sorry it was an accident…” Loki apologizes and smiles faintly. Greg moves closer and grabs Loki’s dress, lifting Loki up against a wall with one hand. 

“If that happens again I will kill you,” Greg says before noticing that the “girl” he was just pinning against a wall is Loki. “Holy shit you’re a guy!” Greg exclaims. “What kind of weird faggot are you?!?” 

“I’m not a faggot you braindead moron,” Loki almost shouts back at Greg, instantly regretting his words. Greg lifts his second hand, already clenched into a fist and ready to take a swing at Loki’s face. Loki shuts his eyes before Greg’s fist hits his face but it doesn’t and Loki is on the floor within seconds. He opens his eyes when he hears Greg grunt. Greg is on the floor his hands between his legs cupping his crotch. Kate is standing above him her heel between his legs. 

“Don’t you dare, try to touch him again!” Kate exclaims angrily at Greg, a look of pure disgust on her face. “Ignorant twat,” Kate adds with a glare before helping Loki to his feet. 

“I don’t care if you’re a girl, I’ll beat you up too,” Greg says while getting back on his feet, obviously still feeling pain. He goes to punch Kate but she grabs his arm and twists it around, a loud crack coming from his wrist, making him fly over her shoulder. Loki’s eyes widen at Kate’s strength and fighting skill. Even in a dress and heels Kate manages to knock a guy who is almost twice her size down.

“Wrong decision chico,” America laughs from behind Loki before stepping closer to Greg. Loki laughs as Greg lies there on the floor obviously surprised and shocked. Greg gets up and glares at Loki.

“Don’t think you’re safe now, queerboy!” Greg growls before pushing past America and Loki. America rolls her eyes and turns to Loki with a slight smile.

“Thank you,” Loki thanks Kate and America. His heart starts to beat faster as he worries how the two girls will react. He knows Kate probably just saved his life but that does not mean that she won’t be weird about the whole “guy” wearing a dress thing. 

“Don’t worry about it; I’ve wanted to do that since I met that guy!” Kate replies with a pleased grin. “You know, the first time he talked to me he called me baby and told me that he’d tap that,” she adds and rolls her eyes so dramatically Loki has to laugh. “Arrogant dickhead!” 

“The first time I saw him he called me babe and asked me to smile for him or put my lips to other use. When I told him to leave me alone he turned around to his friends and said “That bitch is probably a dyke” I had to control myself not to punch his face off,” America explains, the annoyed tone in her voice now more dominant than usual. 

“That guy is such a prick!” Loki exclaims. 

“Do you want us to take you to your room?” Kate asks with a slightly worried tone. Loki is surprised by the concern, he thought that America and Kate were part of Eli’s friend group and hence wouldn’t like him or wouldn’t give two shits about him. 

“No thank you I’ll be alright,” Loki answers with a smile. “Ehm…would you two mind not telling anybody about…well about me,” Loki almost begs the two girls in front of him. 

“It’s none of my business so I won’t talk,” America replies.

“I wouldn’t know what to tell anybody so don’t worry we won’t talk,” Kate adds and smiles at Loki. Loki is instantly relieved when he hears them say that. 

“Thank you,” Loki says with a wide smile. He turns around and starts walking back to his room before turning around. “Happy New Year,” he wishes Kate and America and continues walking. 

*

*just after midnight*

“Let’s get back to our room,” Teddy whispers as his fingers trace Billy’s stomach. The touch of Teddy’s fingers tickles Billy and lets jolts of passion rush through his body. Billy nods and bites his bottom lip, eyes moving over Teddy’s abs. 

Billy picks his shirt and jacket, that Teddy hat taken off, up and gets his phone out. He quickly puts on the devils mask and takes a selfie with Teddy in the background, which Teddy doesn’t notice. Billy is visible from the collarbone upwards and Teddy’s whole upper body is exposed. He looks angelic with the wings still strapped to his back and his perfect torso defined even more through the shadows. Billy plans to send this to Loki and Cassie later, starting the year with something interesting to talk about, not knowing that they would have something to talk about too. 

Teddy comes up to Billy, his mask back on but the rest still being the same. “Did you not come here with a shirt or something?” Billy asks hoping the answer is no. Teddy shakes his head and grins. Billy has to smile as he puts his shirt back on. “I guess it is faster that way,” Billy says and blushes slightly. They leave the gym and walk towards the stairs hoping nobody sees them.

They walk up the stairs and turn into the hallway towards their room when they bump into Tommy and Noh-Varr kissing each other. Billy’s eyes widen when he sees his brother’s lips against those of another boy. He did say that he is bisexual but Billy could never really imagine Tommy with a guy, not that he wanted to. “Tommy!” Billy exclaims. “What the hell? You said you were dating Kate!” Tommy is startled and pushes Noh-Varr away, only just noticing that Teddy and Billy had caught them.

“I…I am but…we have somewhat of an open relationship,” Tommy explains. Billy isn’t sure if he is lying or if this is actually true. Billy raises an eyebrow Tommy in disbelief. “You can ask her if you want,” he adds like he is trying to convince Billy. 

“Okay if you both are in on this I guess it is your thing,” Billy replies before continuing to walk, still not fully sure what to think about what he just saw. Teddy smiles at the two boys and follows Billy closely. He gives Billy a small smack on the ass, which makes Billy’s cheeks go bright red. 

“See I told you they are dating,” Tommy whispers to Noh-Varr still audible to Billy. Billy blushes more and starts to walk faster, grabbing Teddy’s hand. They quickly get to their room and can’t get inside fast enough before they are already connected by the lips again. 

Teddy takes Billy’s shirt off again and starts to kiss his neck, which earns him a few soft moans. He unstraps the wings and lets them fall to the floor before lifting Billy up, his arms around his waist, kissing him on the lips. Billy wraps his legs around Teddy’s torso and arms around his neck. They move towards the beds, masks quickly falling to the floor. Billy softly tugs at Teddy’s hair and starts to kiss Teddy’s neck, his hands slowly moving over Teddy’s upper arms. Teddy’s lies down on the bed, Billy underneath him. 

Their lips connect again, bursts of joy and lust moving through them. Billy’s lips slowly part and Teddy’s tongue meets Billy’s. They briefly fight for dominance, Teddy clearly winning. Teddy pulls back and looks into Billy’s eyes. “You are beautiful,” he whispers. He gently moves downwards, kissing Billy’s neck, then along his collarbone, over his chest and towards his belly button. Quiet moans leave Billy’s lips as Teddy moves over his body. Billy bites the inside of his cheek, trying not to moan. Teddy’s lips kiss lower and lower until reaching the top of Billy’s trousers. Billy feels his crotch pushing against the trousers; he is clearly more than turned on. Teddy kisses the bulge before looking up at Billy’s reaction. Billy is struggling to keep his moans in and one slips out after the kiss on his bulge, this makes Teddy grin. Teddy’s fingers slip under the hem of Billy’s trousers and open the button before unzipping the fly.

*

*meanwhile; still only shortly past midnight*

“Are you sure Tommy is fine with this? I don’t really care for him but I don’t want him getting mad at you,” America asks as Kate is leaning over her. 

“Don’t worry we are pretty open with our relationship,” Kate answers with a smile. The two girls are sitting on the floor of a classroom, somebody had forgotten to lock. Kate’s dark purple, holder less, lace covered dress is pulled down under her chest revealing her black strapless bra. America’s dark blue sports jacket no longer covers the open red and white vertical striped blouse, revealing a dark blue lace bra. 

“You two are extremely weird, Princess,” America says and moves closer. Kate laughs softly and leans forward. She bites her lower lip and her eyes move from America’s eyes down to her lips and up again. 

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Kate responds and kisses America on the lips. Kate moves forwards, pushing America on her back, their lips not parting for a second. America gently bites Kate’s lower lip and turns them around so she is on top. 

“You drive me crazy,” America laughs as she pulls back. 

“I said tell me something I don’t know,” Kate replies with a smirk. America rolls her eyes and kisses Kate again. The touch of America’s lips feels rough against Kate’s soft ones, a lot rougher than Tommy’s Kate notices. She feels odd thinking about Tommy while kissing a girl but she is aware of the fact that he is most likely making out with Noh-Varr right now. Kate noticed the glances Noh-Varr kept on giving Tommy since that night in the gym. The thought of Noh-Varr touching and kissing Tommy puts Kate of. She knows that it is terrible to want an open relationship and then not want Tommy to kiss others but Kate can’t help feeling awkward. 

“Kate?” America asks, snapping Kate out of her thoughts. Apparently they had stopped kissing. “You okay?”

“Yeah I’m great,” Kate lies and smiles. She learned to fake smiles a long time ago and they are very convincing most of the time. Kate leans up on her elbows and kisses America, focusing completely on her. 

Kate’s hand slowly moves up America’s side and under her blouse. The torso is tough, without being too muscular, except for her breasts which bring femininity to America’s form. Kate stops just under the breast before deepening the kiss. Oddly enough Kate hadn’t noticed the taste of America’s lips until now; they have a small hint of cherry, probably from the lip balm she is wearing. Kate counts cherry to one of her new favourite flavours. America’s breast feels firm in Kate’s hand, as Kate softly cups it. America grins into the kiss before pulling slowly back. 

“My first time kissing somebody and I already have a hand on my boob,” America smiles down at Kate. Kate smirks back up at the girl on top of her and bites her lip. 

“I couldn’t resist,” Kate responds and winks at America. 

“Too bad you have to let go now,” a voice from the front of the classroom says, startling the two girls. “You shouldn’t be in here, especially not doing what you are doing,” the voice is low and belongs to a man. America quickly buttons her blouse up and gets her sports jacket before helping Kate with her dress. The man couldn’t see them lying on the floor in between rows of chairs. Kate smooths her hair and gets to her feet, her dress now covering her. 

The man at the front of the class is Mr. Barton, Kate’s P.E. teacher. “Shit,” Kate mumbles as America and her walk toward the front and out of the door. “Fuck…crap!” Kate adds almost inaudible. 

“You know I was your age once and I know how it is to deal with urges and feelings so I won’t report you but if I catch you two again I’ll make you run laps for the rest of the year,” Mr. Barton says, trying to look serious but failing. He looks tired and exhausted but he somehow still manages to look friendly. 

“Yes, sir,” Kate replies and leaves as quickly as possible. America starts to laugh when they are out of sight from Barton. 

“Sir? Princess, since when do you call people sir?” America laughs. They walk back towards the ballroom since it is still pretty early. Kate rolls her eyes at America and shoves her slightly. 

*

*around 2 am*

“Tommy?” Noh-Varr exclaims while walking into the bathroom. Tommy had left to go to the loo a while ago and Noh-Varr started to worry about him. Noh-Varr can hear a muffled crying sound coming from one of the stalls. “Tommy, are you in there?” The muffled sound stops for a moment while Noh-Varr stands in front of the stall. He knocks against the door softly. “Hey, open up.”

“Go away!” Tommy shouts from inside the cubicle. Noh-Varr is startled by that outburst. “I don’t want to talk!” 

“We don’t have to talk just open the door,” Noh-Varr replies; his concern is clearly audible in his voice. The lock on the cubicle door makes a click sound and the door slowly opens. Tommy is sitting on top of the toilet, his eyes puffy and red. He is shaking as tears silently fall down his face. Noh-Varr looks at him with a worried expression and goes to hug the younger boy. 

“NO! Don’t!” Tommy yells, his body shaking harder. “Don’t touch me,” his voice cracks and sobs leave his mouth. 

“What is wrong?” Noh-Varr asks, obviously anxious. 

“I…I can’t…” Tommy’s breath starts to sharpen as he struggles to take in air. “I’m sorry…this is…too much…please…leave.” Tommy’s heart is beating faster and faster. 

“Shhh, hey, everything is going to be okay,” Noh-Varr tries to calm Tommy. “Try to breathe,” he adds and crouches down in front of Tommy. Tommy takes in some sharp breaths as he tries to regulate his breathing. It takes a while until his breathing is somewhat normal again and his heartrate lowers. “Do you want to talk about what happened?” Noh-Varr asks, keeping his voice soft. Tommy shakes his head; he feels ashamed and embarrassed that Noh-Varr found him like this. 

Shortly after they had stopped kissing Tommy started to panic, he still wasn’t completely comfortable with his sexuality and taking such a large step and making out with a person of the same gender made Tommy frustrated and somehow scared. The kissing wasn’t very passionate and it didn’t last long but Tommy was worried what might have happened if they had continued. He wasn’t sure if an open relationship really was something for him or if a relationship at all would be smart. “Who would love you?” “What loser would actually care for you?” “Your parents don’t so why should anybody else?” “That’s right you are pathetic and useless!” Those thoughts went through Tommy’s mind shortly before he had the breakdown. 

“Okay, do you want to get out of the cubicle and go to our room?” Noh-Varr responds to the head shake. Tommy nods, scared that if he tries to talk he would start sobbing again. He slowly steps off the toilet, still a little shake and stands. Noh-Varr stands up and after hesitating for a second he puts his hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “It’s okay, everybody has rough nights sometimes, nothing to be ashamed of,” Noh-Varr says and smiles softly. Tommy looks at the floor thinking that his “sometimes” is probably far too high. He fakes a smile and starts to walk past Noh-Varr, who takes his hand and turns him around, so he can hug him. Tommy feels safe in the embrace of the slightly taller guy but that safety seems fake for Tommy. 

After a few seconds Noh-Varr lets go and the two boys start to walk towards their room. Noh stays up for the rest of the night watching over Tommy, who wakes up every other hour screaming, shakes and twitches in his sleep from nightmares, and has sobbing fits. When Tommy wakes up Noh-Varr softly strokes the younger boys hair until he calms down and falls asleep again. This night is one of the worst nights Tommy has had since his “bad times” started a couple of years ago but Noh-Varr being there to comfort him makes Tommy feel better and actually cared for. 

*

*later that night*

“Sorry…I…” Billy tries to find words for what he wants to tell Teddy.

“No, it’s okay I totally get it. You aren’t ready yet and want to wait until you are completely comfortable with the thought of having sex or going further than making out. I understand and I don’t want to force you to do anything you aren’t ready to do yet,” Teddy responds and smiles at Billy. They are sitting on Teddy’s bed; both topless and Billy’s trousers undone. Billy sighs and looks at the floor. It isn’t like he doesn’t want to go further he just doesn’t feel ready yet and wants everything to be special and at the right point in time. 

“You are the most amazing guy ever! Seriously, what guy would wait patiently and stop multiples times just because the other person is too scared to do anything?” Billy says and frowns. Teddy puts his finger under Billy’s chin and makes Billy look at him. 

“Every decent guy,” Teddy replies before kissing Billy. “Don’t worry, I can wait. I’ve lived this long without anything and I can live longer without it,” Teddy adds with a smile. “You are seriously worth every second of waiting and I am the luckiest guy ever because I’m allowed to kiss you,” he says before doing exactly that. 

“Thank you,” Billy mumbles after their lips part. Teddy’s smile makes Billy feel like he came home, after being lost for too long. “You know what? I used to feel like I was lost at sea, struggling against crashing waves and sea monsters until I met you…you guided me back on the right route…I know I’m still struggling against monsters and waves but they seem so much smaller with you guiding me,” Billy explains, making Teddy smile even wider. 

“My little sailor,” Teddy mutters before kissing Billy’s temple. Billy leans his head against Teddy’s shoulder and closes his eyes, feeling Teddy’s heartbeat sync with his or his syncing with Teddy’s, either way he feels them beat together, stronger than just by themselves. “I love you,” Teddy whispers softly and intertwines their fingers. 

“I love you more,” Billy whispers back and softly strokes the back of Teddy’s hand with his thumb. 

*

Billy’s hand is rested on Teddy’s chest and his head is rested on Teddy’s upper arm. Teddy’s arm is wrapped around Billy holding him close. Their legs are intertwined; Teddy’s being between Billy’s legs. Billy changed into a t-shirt and took his trousers off; Teddy decided to leave what he was wearing, which is a pair of trousers, on. They fell asleep a while ago, holding each other and keeping each other safe. Billy smiles in his sleep, feeling Teddy’s warmth seems to keep his nightmares far away. This night is one of the best, if not the best night, Billy has ever had. 

*  
*even later that night*

After Loki left America and Kate, the two girls continued to walk back to their room. “God, you can kick ass, princess” America says, clearly impressed by Kate. “And I always thought that I was the ass kicker of us two.”

“Well, you are but only because I haven’t had a chance to show of my ass kicking skills,” Kate replies with a small laugh. America puts her arm around Kate’s shoulders as they walk down the old and dusty hallway. 

“We should form an anti asshole group called Lady Bishop and Miss America; Kickers of Ass,” America jokes and laughs softly. Kate isn’t used to America laughing so much and normally only sees the rough and tough side America tries to overplay her insecurities with. Kate enjoys this new side of America, relaxed and chill but still ready to kill. It makes Kate smile that America lets Kate see others sides of her personality; be it insecurities and fears or humour and happiness. 

*

The night comes to an end for everybody. They lay in their beds, either restless and worried like Tommy and Noh-Varr, relaxed and at peace like Billy and Teddy, giddy and excited like America and Kate or just exhausted and relieved like Loki. This New Year’s Eve has been exciting and eventful for all of the young teens but it has to come to an end and the New Year has only just begun, holding more excitement, emotions, fears, events, love and much much more for the friends at the Bishop Institute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the switching around isn't too confusing or awkward, I wanted to focus is bit more on other characters beside Billy and Teddy in this chapter.


	7. God knows what this chapter is called

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So there are just some random things happening that just kinda happened in this chapter.

“Good morning, little sailor,” Teddy mumbles into Billy’s ear as Billy slowly wakes up. Billy blushes and smiles widely. 

“Hey…big…I need a nickname for you,” Billy laughs softly as he sits up, Teddy following him. Teddy pecks Billy’s cheek and gets out of bed. 

“You are smart you’ll think of something,” Teddy says as he gets a top and a pair of jeans out of his closet. Billy looks away as Teddy changes, Teddy is pretty comfortable about his body and doesn’t mind Billy seeing but Billy is still a little shy. 

It is shortly after two pm and Billy is sure that they might be the first people to be awake after seeing so many drunken people and hearing people going through the halls until god knows what time of day. Teddy and Billy leave their dorm to get something to eat and Billy’s thought is almost correct, everything is empty except for Cassie and Kamala sitting in the cafeteria. 

“Good morning, you two,” Cassie greets the two boys with a grin on her face. Billy and Teddy sit down at the table with their lunch and smile at Cassie.

“Why are you grinning? Did you get a new year’s kiss from Jonas?” Teddy asks in a fake excited tone which is very unlike Teddy since it is usually Billy, Loki and Kamala that tease Cassie about Jonas. Billy smiles widely and looks at Teddy with an impressed expression. 

“Wow I’m proud,” Billy whispers, placing his hand on his chest. Cassie rolls her eyes, her grin now fading. 

“I don’t get why everybody thinks I have a crush on Jonas!” Cassie exclaims very loudly and in an angry tone. 

“Wait…you don’t?” a voice says from behind her. Kamala, who is sitting opposite of Cassie, looks shocked. Teddy, who is next to Kamala, looks equally as shocked and also a little amused. Billy and Cassie quickly turn around and see a very sad looking Jonas. Cassie’s eyes widen and a gush of guilt comes over her. 

“I…ehhh…Jonas,” Cassie doesn’t know what to say. Jonas quickly spins around and leaves the cafeteria. “Shit!” Cassie sighs and hits her head against the table. Billy raises his eyebrow and looks at her worried. 

“You okay?” Billy asks and softly taps Cassie’s shoulder. Cassie just lets out a loud groan as an answer, which Billy takes as a no. “I’m guessing he thought you have a crush on him,” Billy mumbles. 

“Probably because they were kissing last night,” Kamala suddenly says causing Billy’s and Teddy’s jaws to drop. Cassie’s head quickly comes up from the table again and her widened eyes are glaring at Kamala in disbelieve, as if Cassie couldn’t believe what Kamala just said. “What? They should know,” Kamala quickly adds. Cassie’s cheeks turn a bright pink and her head hits the table again. 

“Kill me,” Cassie mumbles against the table. Billy giggles softly before placing his hand on Cassie’s back.

“It’s okay…or at least it will be,” Billy says and smiles at Cassie. She looks at Billy, not looking convinced. 

“Billy is right, just explain the situation to Jonas and he’ll understand,” Teddy adds also with a smile. For some reason it felt good for Billy that Teddy agreed with him, it made him feel good and better about his own opinions. Cassie sighs loudly before getting up and walking towards the exit. 

“You are coming with me,” she demands while pointing at Kamala. Kamala’s eyes widen. She gets up, a look of horror on her face, and walks out with Cassie. 

“You know at some point we will have to tell them,” Teddy whispers to Billy, who is biting into an apple. 

“Tell them what?” Billy mutters with a full mouth. Teddy smiles softly. Billy knows exactly what Teddy means and remembers last night when he took the selfie, wanting to tall Loki and Cassie about him and Teddy. He decided against it though. 

“You know what…tell them about us,” Teddy replies a little worried that Billy won’t react well to the idea. Billy swallows and licks his lips while thinking for a moment. Billy licking his lips makes Teddy a little crazy, wishing he could touch those lips instead of Billy’s tongue. He quickly shakes that thought away and waits for an answer.

“You know Cassie is never going to let us forget that she predicted this…and Tommy is totally going to tease us about it…not to forget Loki, he has been annoying me for ages about us two,” Billy responds and looks down at his hands. He is scared, not of the others teasing him but of Teddy not wanting him, of Teddy leaving him when everybody starts to talk and Billy wants to keep Teddy close to him as long as possible. Billy places his hand on Teddy’s. “Can we wait a little longer?”

Teddy has been silent for quite a while now and Billy’s nerves are getting worse and worse. “You know…I am totally okay with not having sex or stopping foreplay when you want to wait, I respect that but I don’t want to keep our relationship a secret. I am in love with this stupid little dork and I can’t not tell the world about it!” Teddy finally answers. Teddy leans forward and kisses Billy. This is the first time they are kissing in a place others could see. Well technically it isn’t since they kissed that night in the gym with the others watching but that wasn’t a real kiss, this is though this is as real of a kiss as either of them have ever felt. 

“Am I disturbing something here?” they hear a mocking voice. Tommy is smiling at the two boys as their lips part. “So were you going to tell your big bro that you are dating the schools leading stud or was I supposed to come across you two here?” Tommy asks with a joking tone. Billy isn’t as scared as he thought he would feel when somebody finds out especially Tommy. 

“Why? Are you jealous?” Billy mocks with a wide smile on his face. Tommy rolls his eyes dramatically; most people think that Billy is the dramatic one of the two but they are both just as bad as the other one. “He was totally hitting on you just then,” Billy ‘whispers’ loudly to Teddy with a fake shock on his face. 

“I know right? Must be my charming good looks and amazing personality,” Teddy jokes although for Billy that is just an understatement. 

“Or maybe your humble attitude,” Tommy adds and laughs. Billy and Teddy join him; their hands are touching each other on the table. “But seriously couldn’t you tell us a few days earlier? Kate won the bet now uuugh,” Tommy sighs. 

“Bet? Tommy! Did you bet on when Teddy and I were going to tell you that we’re a thing?” Billy asks sounding somewhat offended. Although he probably would have joined in if it had been about anybody else he was a little offended by others doing it to him.

“It was Cassie’s idea I swear!” Tommy laughs again. “She thought you were going to wait at least until the end of the school year, Kate thought you were going to tell us at the beginning of the year, Loki said that you weren’t ever going to tell us, and Noh and I thought you’d tell us before the year ends…why do you have to be so secretive?” Tommy narrows his eyes at Billy jokingly. This time Billy rolls his eyes. 

“Well you didn’t tell us about you and Noh-Varr,” Billy counters remembering last night when Teddy and him had walked into the two. 

“There is no me and Noh-Varr, we made out that’s it I’m with Kate,” Tommy responds. He turns and sees Kate and America enter the cafeteria with Noh-Varr. “Speak of the devil and she will appear,” Tommy says before getting up and kissing Kate. Kate looks at Teddy’s and Billy’s holding hands and grins widely.

“I won didn’t I?” she exclaims loudly. America sits down next to Teddy and smiles at him. Noh-Varr shakes his head slightly before sitting down next to America. 

“Yes, you did. What does the winner get?” Teddy asks. There’s another three people that know now. Billy’s previous calmness is starting to dissolve but for the moment he is not anxious yet.

“10 dollars from every loser,” Tommy answers and narrows his eyes at Kate’s smug smile. Noh pulls out a tenner and passes it to Kate while Tommy gives her ten one dollar notes. Kate shakes her head at Tommy before kissing him. “I won’t be the one who tells Cassie,” Tommy quickly exclaims. “She is a worse loser than me!”

*

Loki has been lying in bed wide awake for the last few hours, thinking about what had happened yesterday, when he hears a knock at the door. “Come in!” he shouts without moving. Bobby opens the door and comes inside. He looks worried or even scared. “What is wrong?” Loki asks when he notices this. 

“Can we talk about what happened yesterday?” Bobby sits down on the empty bed. Loki sits up and looks at Bobby, concern very obvious on his face. 

“Yes, of course,” Loki replies, starting to get nervous. He has never been in a situation such as this one so this is extremely new for him and he worries.

“I really had a lot of fun with you but I really don’t want anything I said or did to hurt our friendship because I actually really like you,” Bobby sighs and looks at his hands. 

“So what you’re saying is what? You want to stay friends?” Loki asks confused. “Bobby, why would we not be friends after last night?” 

“I don’t know…I just got kind of worried I guess?” Bobby responds. Loki stands up and sits down next to Bobby. He places his hand on Bobby’s and looks into his eyes.

“Don’t worry so much!” Loki says softly and smiles. Bobby’s eyes move from Loki’s lips to his eyes and back again. Loki slowly moves back not sure what Bobby is about to do when Bobby leans forward. Their lips briefly touch, just a small peck. “I though you wanted to be friends,” Loki is a little startled.

“Well yeah…but friends can kiss each other…can’t they?” Bobby sounds very shy and insecure, which is very unlike his usual happy, joking self. 

“Yeah…I guess,” Loki replies and smiles. “They can do a lot if they want to,” he adds. 

“Okay great!” Bobby exclaims and moves towards Loki again. 

“Wait!” Loki almost shouts. Bobby’s eyes widen in surprise and he quickly moves back again. “We need rules though.”

“Rules?” Bobby asks. Loki nods before getting a notepad and a pen. 

“Rules like ‘no getting jealous if either of us kisses somebody else’ or ‘only small kisses and no French kisses’ or maybe ‘no further than kissing’, rules like that,” Loki explains. He feels silly saying French kiss. 

“Okay…the first rule is good and the third one too but what if I want to kiss you more passionately?” Bobby responds making air quotations when he says passionately. 

“Then we’ll leave that rule out.” Loki starts to write down a few rules, scratching the ones Bobby disagrees with and adding some Bobby thinks are suitable for their situation. 

*

“Please Jonas listen,” Cassie mumbles. She is sitting on the floor of one of the classrooms next to Jonas while Kamala is standing opposite them. Kamala had been quiet for the whole time Cassie was talking. 

“Cassie, playing with a guy’s feelings is not cool,” Jonas responds. Cassie suddenly felt a lump form in her throat. “You know what? I actually though you liked me. Really liked me…but now I can see that I was just a piece of distraction and fun for you,” Jonas adds before standing up and walking towards the door. That was true for Cassie at first but she really had fallen for the guy. 

“Wait!” Cassie shouts and gets up. “I really do like you!” she exclaims and runs towards Jonas, kissing him once she reaches him. Kamala smiles at her two friends. Jonas wasn’t the first guy Cassie had kissed or felt something for; Nate, a guy she met one summer, was the first but he turned out to be an arsehole and this felt so much realer, so much stronger. 

“See I told you that you like him,” Kamala laughs. “You should have listened to your friends,” she mocks Cassie slightly. Cassie sighs at Kamala’s comment when she turns to look at her, holding Jonas’ hand in hers.

“Are you serious right now?” Cassie asks and laughs softly. Kamala, Cassie and Jonas leave the classroom together, Cassie still holding Jonas’ hand. 

“There they are!” Billy shouts to his twin. He is holding Teddy’s hand. It feels weird for him to hold Teddy’s hand in public where anybody and everybody can see. Cassie’s eyes move towards Billy’s and Teddy’s hand. Teddy’s and Billy’s eyes move towards Cassie’s and Jonas’ hands. 

“HA! I knew it!” all three of them exclaim at once. “Noooo!” Cassie suddenly howls. “Couldn’t you two dork wait?” she asks. “I hate you two right now,” she lets go of Jonas’ hand and walks towards them, glaring angrily. Tommy was not kidding Cassie really is a terrible loser. 

“I thought you’d be happy for us,” Billy says, a fake tone of hurt on his voice. “But apparently money and winning a bet is more important to you,” he now fakes crying. 

“Aww now you’ve hurt him,” Teddy hugs Billy and frowns, obviously also faking. Cassie and Tommy roll their eyes. Although they both are very different, they agree on many aspects when it comes to Teddy and Billy. 

“God you two are annoying,” Tommy says. “Anyway, Cassie you owe Kate ten bucks,” Tommy adds, knowing that Cassie is still not happy about losing. Cassie glares at Tommy before reaching into her pocket and getting a ten dollar note out. 

Kate, America and Noh are coming from the direction of the cafeteria, now joined by Warren, Eli and Laura. Billy’s first instinct was to let go of Teddy’s hand but when his hand loosened he could feel Teddy’s closing stronger, squeezing his hand softly. Billy looks up at Teddy, who is looking down at him with a reassuring smile. His loosened hand hold on to Teddy’s tightly again and Billy smiles back at Teddy. 

Warren smiles at Teddy, which makes Billy feel a little less anxious. His friends knowing was not as bad as Billy thought it would be but having other people, that Billy isn’t so close to, like Teddy’s friends, makes him anxious. Teddy can feel this and softly kisses Billy’s temple before whispering. “Hey everything’s good, they like you so they’ll be okay with this.” 

Cassie very disappointedly passes the ten dollars to Kate, who is smiling. “You’d think that Billy’s brother and his best female friend would know him better than I do,” Kate says with a soft laugh. It makes Billy loosen up a little, hearing others laugh in his presence and it not being directly about him. 

“That was pure luck, Bishop,” Tommy glares at her. 

“That or you’re just a horrible brother,” Billy jokes, which earns him a glare too. “Just saying,” he adds as way of justifying his statement. Teddy laughs at this; his beautiful, bright laugh, which echoes through Billy, filling him with happiness. 

“You two should have been more secretive about this,” Cassie states. Billy isn’t fully sure if she means this in a joking way or if she is serious. 

“Tommy wants us to be less secretive, you want us to be more secretive, could somebody please decide,” Teddy responds while laughing. 

“Decide what?” Loki asks when he comes down the stairs with Bobby and Christian. Billy tenses up again. He knew that people finding out would be a little stressful for him and he thought that he would be able to somehow deal with that but not when everybody finds out at once. 

“Are you serious? Why is everybody coming here right now?” Billy exclaims, earning him a few glances from the others and confused looks from Loki, Bobby and Christian. His palms are starting to get sweaty, which is making him feel even more self-conscious. 

Billy pulls his hand from Teddy’s and storms up the stairs trying to ignore everybody around him. Reacting like this made Billy feel even worse and just plain stupid but he couldn’t help it. Through his mother he knew that it is likely that he has an anxiety disorder. Billy could hear somebody walking behind him and presumed that it was Teddy. 

“Teddy I’m really sorry but everybody finding out we’re dating is really stressing me out right now,” Billy says while turning around. The person behind him wasn’t Teddy though. Billy’s eyes widen when they see the big lump of muscle that is Greg Norris. He swallows hard and stumbles backwards as Greg glares at him. 

“Oh boohoo is the little gay boy a little stressed,” Greg mocks Billy and laughs. He steps closer to Billy causing Billy’s heart to pound harder in his chest. “Isn’t it odd that Teddy, one of the most popular guys at this school, is dating you?” Greg continues to talk as he is only inches from Billy. “You’d think he has more standards, and wouldn’t date such a tiny…,” he pokes Billy’s chest when he says the last word and with each following word. “Pathetic…useless…loser…faggot!” 

Every word Greg says hurts worse than the hard pokes, cutting deep into Billy’s mind. It takes all the strength Billy has to not cry. Billy can feel his hands starting to shake although he isn’t sure if it is out of fear or anger. 

“Fuck off!” Billy suddenly shouts before pushing Greg, tears starting to roll down his face. Greg is surprised and stumbles back before falling backwards. Billy’s tear filled eyes widen again. What did he do? Did he really just push the largest bully of the school? Billy is probably more shocked than Greg right now. “Oh shit,” he mumbles almost inaudible. 

Greg’s face instantly fills with rage. He quickly stands up and grabs Billy, lifting his hand in a fist, ready to punch. “Let go!” Billy can hear Teddy exclaim. Greg turns around, not letting Billy go. There is anger on Teddy’s face, anger Billy has never seen before. Although it scared Billy to see Teddy like this it also kind of turned him on. Teddy was angry; Teddy was full of rage and that because Greg was threatening Billy. 

A laugh leaves Greg’s mouth as he throws Billy to the floor before charging towards Teddy, his fist held up high. “No!” Billy screams when he sees Greg’s fist connect with Teddy’s face. Teddy falls to the floor and suddenly all Billy can see or feel is blackness. 

*

“Billy?” a soft voice, Teddy’s voice, asks. Billy blinks a few times, his eyes focusing on the beautiful eyes in front of his. Teddy seems to be relieved. 

“What…What happened?” Billy asks. His face and fists were aching and when he looked down at them he saw that they were covered in dark bruises. Teddy has a large bruise on his left eye, where Billy saw Greg’s fist hit him. 

“You beat up Greg,” Teddy said, and although his tone was calm Billy could hear the worried undertone. Billy beating up a guy almost twice his size? That didn’t sound like something Billy would even dream about doing. “You just blacked out and started hitting him repeatedly after you kicked him down,” Teddy explained. 

“I…I wouldn’t…I wouldn’t do something like that,” Billy responded, shock both in his tone and on his lightly bruised face. His knuckles were covered in bruises though. 

“You did though…God Billy I was so scared,” Teddy replies. Billy feels his throat tighten and his stomach twist. Was Teddy scared of him? “I though Greg was going to kill you! Billy don’t you dare put yourself in that much danger again!” Teddy was crying. This was Billy’s fault. Billy made Teddy cry or at least that’s how Billy sees it now. 

“No…no please I’m sorry, please don’t,” Billy was starting to panic now. He wrapped his arms around Teddy, hugging him tight. 

“Billy I love you too much to lose you,” Teddy says and hugs Billy back. This made Billy feel a lot better but Greg’s words still shot through his mind. Useless, pathetic, loser. Teddy should have higher standards than Billy. 

“What happened to Greg?” Billy asks quietly. Teddy lets go of Billy. 

“After you punched him a few times he started to punch you back and it took four of us to get him of you,” Teddy explains. “He ran off when we told him that we’d get a teacher,” Teddy adds. The expression on Teddy’s face when he tells Billy this worries Billy more than the things Teddy is telling him. 

“I’m really sorry Teddy,” Billy starts to apologise. “I should have just continued walking, all this wouldn’t have happened without me,” he continues getting angrier at himself. Teddy shakes his head and looks at Billy’s face with concern. 

“This isn’t your fault. This is Greg’s fault. All this wouldn’t have happened if he weren’t such an ignorant dick,” Teddy counters, keeping his eyes on Billy’s. Billy looks away, only then noticing that they weren’t in the hallway anymore. There are in the room of the school nurse. 

“Oh good he woke up,” Mrs. Foster, the school nurse, says as she enters the room with a few cool packs. “Here, put them on your knuckles, you are lucky they aren’t broken,” she adds while passing the cool packs to Billy. “Are you going to tell me what happened? Your friend here didn’t want to tell me.” Jane looks at Billy, her expression telling that she isn’t really expecting anything. 

“I’m just really clumsy,” Billy responds with a small laugh. Laughing hurts a bit. Billy looks back at Teddy, who is giving Mrs. Foster a soft smile. Mrs. Foster shakes her head and sighs lightly but keeps a friendly expression. 

“Okay then, I can’ help with clumsiness but I can give you this against the pain,” Mrs. Foster says and takes a few tablets out of a small container. She gives them to Billy with a glass of water. “Take one every four hours and rest a lot.” 

“Thank you,” Billy replies and takes the tablets. Mrs. Foster smiles and leaves the room again. Billy decides to slowly sit up, Teddy moving off the bed he was sitting on. He groans lightly now also feeling pain in his ribs and stomach. 

“Be careful,” Teddy exclaims the concern very obvious again. This makes Billy smile a little. Teddy takes Billy’s hands, standing in front of the hurting boy. “Thank you for trying to defend me,” Teddy almost whispers and, carefully and gently kisses Billy. 

*

“Faster!” Mr. Maximoff shouts. He blows into a whistle and watches as Tommy runs back and forth, timing him. Tommy is slightly out of breath but continues to run, pushing himself harder. There are a few other students watching, obviously impressed at Tommy’s speed. 

“And stop!” Mr. Maximoff exclaims, pressing the timer. “You were slower than last time,” he says with a stern look on his face. Tommy looks down at his feet, obviously exhausted and out of breath. No matter how hard he tries or how hard he pushes himself he can’t seem to be good enough for Mr. Maximoff. 

“Go easy on the boy Pietro,” a kind voice says. Tommy sees that it is Mrs. Maximoff when he looks up. She smiles at him, familiar warmth in her face. Her smile reminded him of Billy’s, when Billy’s smile was genuine and actually meaningful. Wanda walks towards Tommy, passing him a cold bottle of water. 

“Thank you,” Tommy says with a wide smile, breath still unsteady. Most teachers tend to stay away from Tommy or treat him a bit odd. This is probably because he never really paid much attention in class and was a bit of a troublemaker. Mrs. Maximoff was always kind though, which surprised Tommy a lot. 

Mr. Maximoff on the other hand always pushed him to be better, stronger, faster. Although Tommy is sure that Mr. Maximoff only means well and wants Tommy to improve, he can’t really see how it is affecting Tommy. 

“Okay, break is over Shepherd. Slowly run around the field five times and then we’ll try the sprints again!” Pietro say to Tommy. A small sigh leaves Tommy’s mouth. He gives a small smile to Wanda before starting to run. While running he can hear Mrs. Maximoff talk to her brother but he couldn’t understand what she was saying, she seemed upset though. 

“Faster! Come on Shepherd don’t be so useless! Faster! You’re going to upset everybody! Faster! Do you want them to laugh at you? Faster! You’re a disgrace!” This and much more goes through his head as he runs around the track. He is close to tears but years of experience helps him keep them away. 

When he runs past Wanda and Pietro he puts his usual cocky smile on and continues. But something makes him stumble for a second. “He isn’t a kid anymore!” Pietro almost whispers to Wanda. 

“Yes he is! Can’t you see that this is too much? He’s just a kid! He is not you!” Wanda almost shouts in return, this time accidentally audible to Tommy. Trying to ignore what he just heard Tommy continues to run faster. He winks at three of the other students, the triplets Phoebe, Celest and Mindee. They giggle lightly and turn away from him and look at America, who is just rolling her eyes. 

“What?” Mindee asks. “He’s cute,” Phoebe adds. This just makes America laugh. “Obviously she doesn’t think so, she’s playing for the other team,” Celest says. “Do you two not pay any attention at all?” she asks her two sisters. 

America laughs again and shakes her head before running after Tommy. “You act very cocky chico,” America says as she runs next to Tommy. “You aren’t though are you?” Tommy is a bit surprised by this and a little taken back. 

“Wh…What?” he mumbles and raises an eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t I be cocky? You can see what I can do,” he tries to put as much confidence into those words as possible, lying more to himself than to America. 

“Really? You’re not very convincing. You might be able to fool Kate, Billy or Noh with those words but I see that you don’t feel as strong as you show yourself,” America starts, running next to Tommy’s now slowed pace. “You know I may seem like a hard heartless puta but I struggle like everybody else,” she explains, showing Tommy something hardly anybody gets to see, her soft side. 

Tommy stops to run and looks at America, his heart beating fast in his chest and his eyes burning with unshed tears. “Well you’re a girl you’re allowed to have feelings, you’re allowed to struggle,” Tommy almost exclaims and starts to walk away and off the track back towards the institute. 

*

“Thank you for skipping P.E. with me,” Billy says to Loki as they walk down the aisle of the closest supermarket. Billy is pushing a trolley in front of him, placing things in it every now and then. 

“No need to thank me,” Loki responds with a small smile. “Mr. Maximoff hates me anyways,” he laughs slightly. Billy though hate was a bit over exaggerated. Mr. Maximoff didn’t like Billy and Loki very much but that was mostly because they weren’t very good at running unlike Tommy or America. 

“What are we doing here though?” Loki asks, following Billy around the shop and putting a few things he wants into the trolley. Billy puts a few other things into the trolley too. 

“I want to surprise Teddy with a small picnic,” Billy answers, keeping his eyes off Loki. Loki in return smiles widely. Billy can see the smile from the corner of his eyes and blushes bright red. “I kinda screwed up today so I wanted to do something to apologise and make him feel better,” he adds, still trying to ignore Loki’s face. 

“You know I always said that you two would be super cute together and now look at you! I knew it!” Loki starts to brag his smile turning into a grin. He walks and stands in front of Billy, making him stop and look up at him. “So tell me, how did it happen?” 

“Seriously?” Billy responds and rolls his eyes at Loki. A small laugh leaves Loki’s mouth and he lets Billy continue walking. “I’m not telling you anything,” Billy says as he walks past Loki. He puts the last few things into the trolley and heads for the till. 

*

“Okay so Teddy will be finished with soccer in ten minutes, he should be here in 15 minutes,” Billy talks to himself as he places a chequered blanket on the floor between his and Teddy’s beds. “That’s enough time to set everything up and get ready,” Billy continues. 

He places a bowl with grapes, a plate with chocolate covered strawberries and a bowl of popcorn on the center of the blanket. Although he knew that there will be something he forgot or something that will stress him out at the last minute, like there always is, he seemed relatively calm. Billy was slowly getting everything ready for Teddy. 

Billy rented a few movies that Teddy wanted to see and got a few of the new issues of the comic books Teddy was currently reading. He placed them next to where Billy wanted Teddy to sit. Remembering that Teddy told him that his mother’s strawberry milkshakes were his favourite Billy also got some strawberry milkshakes and whipped cream, they weren’t Teddy’s mum’s but that was as close as Billy could get. 

As the time passed and Teddy would be getting to the room any moment Billy was starting to worry a little. When he finally heard the door open he felt his heart jump into his throat, both excitement and fear running through his body. He couldn’t wait to see how Teddy would react. Would Teddy be happy? Did Billy finally do something right? 

The person that entered the room had Teddy’s golden blonde hair and his kind eyes but it wasn’t Teddy. Billy’s eyes widened when he realised who just entered his room, when he realised who he was going to be talking to now. Even though he had thought about this moment a few times, well actually more than a few times, he never thought it would happen like this. Not here, not at this point in time. 

“Oh, hello you must be Billy. Teddy told me to wait here while he finishes soccer practise,” the woman said, her voice very gentle and friendly. 

“Mrs. Altman!” Billy exclaimed obvious surprise in his voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took far too long. I haven't really been feeling very inspired but hopefully that will change now. Sorry.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first try at a Billy/Teddy fanfiction and I hope it isn't too terrible.


End file.
